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A stream so shallow you barely got your ankles wet split a village for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, meadows and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents set about memorialising their past. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely ready. Addressing the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity never stood in the path of the residents socializing in the same pub, attending the same church and sending their young ones to the same school.

Post-War Division

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they appeared, the Russians installed wood stakes by the brook. For a twelve months they took over the whole village, setting up their headquarters in a building on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to withdraw back over the brook. For a time, villagers could still hop over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to present ID, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could still see each other by ascending hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. One woman was placed on a Stasi watch list for responding “same to you” to a western villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told accounts including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his occupational time building it. Residents were consulted early on about how how long a section structure they desired to keep. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian edge, near where a local resident was able to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the boundary was heavily fortified.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of watchtowers are conserved together with a set of displays showing the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, the director details the rules: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents needed particular approval to care for their crops; the partner could work the combine harvester but never the pair, in case they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but more than twice as many people (well over 300) died trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director informs me that 95 percent of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their fields. They neither supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, the director states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of site of interest. Approximately 15k visited annually, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.

Modern Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, shop, cinema room and big vehicle area – is likely to