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An creek so narrow you barely got your feet wet separated a community for over four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by pine forests, meadows and stunning scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. US troops called it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers set about memorialising their past. The work is about to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Telling the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which ripped households apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house best known for assigning all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the identical inn, visiting the identical place of worship and sending their children to the very same learning center.

After the War Division

Then came the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Russians installed wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they seized the complete hamlet, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to pull back across the brook. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as controls increased they were required to present identification, although everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could continue to observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were forbidden. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who said her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his professional career building it. Residents were polled early on about how how long a section barrier they desired to preserve. They opted for a portion on the western edge, close to where a villager managed to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was heavily fortified.

Maintained Installations

A pair of watchtowers are preserved together with a collection of exhibits showing the most dramatic moments in the community’s history. As we stroll, the director details the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers required special permission to care for their fields; the spouse could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, in case they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The border between West Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the greatest, but over twice as many people (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the village became a type of destination. Roughly 15k came to see annually, binoculars in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Modern Changes

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, film screening area and large car park – is expected to