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A creek so low you hardly got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their country had unified again in 1990, a group of residents began commemorating their heritage. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Speaking to the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which pulled families apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most famous for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk never stood in the path of the residents gathering in the same inn, attending the very same place of worship and placing their children to the identical school.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they occupied the complete hamlet, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to withdraw back over the creek. For a time, villagers could still cross over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to display identification, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Increase of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could continue to observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. One woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for replying “back at you” to a West German villager who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career developing it. Residents were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they desired to preserve. They selected a section on the west fringe, close to where a villager succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was substantially fortified.

Preserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are preserved in addition to a set of exhibits illustrating the most dramatic events in the village’s history. As we walk, the director lists the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers required special permission to care for their produce; the partner could use the harvesting machine but not the two, for fear that they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Context

The border between West Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most, but over two times more people (more than 300) were killed trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who adapted to living in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and tending to their land. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor fought it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. About 15k visited annually, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary village similar to Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and big parking lot – is probable to