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An stream so low you barely got your feet wet split a village for over four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a partition. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own wall was opened, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a group of residents began commemorating their past. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely ready. Speaking to the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which tore relatives apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the very same inn, attending the identical place of worship and sending their children to the identical school.

Following WWII Split

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops put up wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the complete community, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans urged them to withdraw across the brook. For a time, locals could continue to jump across, though as restrictions increased they were required to display identity papers, even though all was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was constructed, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time building it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how what length of wall they wanted to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian fringe, adjacent to where a local resident was able to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the border was substantially strengthened.

Conserved Structures

2 watchtowers are maintained in addition to a set of exhibits showing the most significant dates in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Lebergen details the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers required special permission to tend to their produce; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, lest they sought to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Background

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the greatest, but over double the number people (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They did not backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Roughly 15k came to visit every year, binoculars in possession, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and large parking lot – is probable to