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A brook so low you hardly got your ankles wet split a settlement for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their state had become one in 1990, a group of local people set about memorialising their heritage. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely ready. Telling the residents who experienced the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an brutal split, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal split, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for giving all its men the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the same inn, going to the same church and sending their kids to the same learning center.

Post-War Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the whole hamlet, establishing their control center in a house on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to withdraw back over the creek. For a period, villagers could continue to cross over, though as controls became stricter they were required to display identity papers, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The villagers could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told narratives including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his professional career creating it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of structure they desired to keep. They selected a portion on the western edge, close to where one of their own managed to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, subsequently the border was heavily fortified.

Preserved Structures

A pair of guard towers are conserved alongside a collection of exhibits showing the most significant dates in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed specific authorization to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but not the pair, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but over two times more persons (well over 300) died seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. Roughly 15k came to visit annually, optical devices in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Present-Day Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and sizable parking lot – is likely to