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A brook so low you barely got your feet wet separated a community for in excess of four decades. By an accident of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by evergreen groves, meadows and stunning views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. United States military personnel dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own wall was breached, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of local people began documenting their history. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely finished. Speaking to the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an cruel separation, which pulled families apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal separation, which pulled households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

Historical Context

Starting at its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the locals socializing in the identical inn, going to the identical religious building and sending their children to the very same learning center.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the brook. For a twelve months they seized the whole community, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw back over the brook. For a period, locals could continue to cross over, though as limitations tightened they were forced to display ID, even though each person understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. One woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a West German local who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his professional career creating it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they wished to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the western perimeter, close to where a villager was able to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, after which the border was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Structures

2 observation towers are maintained together with a set of displays depicting the most significant events in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers required special permission to look after their produce; the husband or wife could operate the harvesting machine but never the two, for fear that they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Context

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many people (well over 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between a pair of ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. Approximately 15k visited every year, binoculars in hand, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a television program about a fictional hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to new interest.

Modern Changes

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is expected to