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A brook so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet divided a village for over four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by pine forests, fields and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was marked first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own division was opened, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents began commemorating their history. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely prepared. Speaking to the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel division, which tore households apart and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family best known for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the peculiarity did not stand in the path of the locals socializing in the identical pub, attending the very same religious building and enrolling their children to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Split

Then came the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the creek. For a year they seized the whole hamlet, setting up their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a while, locals could still jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to show identity papers, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The residents could still view each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. One woman was placed on a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a West German local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his working life building it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how what length of structure they wanted to preserve. They chose a section on the west fringe, adjacent to where a villager was able to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the border was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Buildings

2 guard towers are preserved in addition to a collection of displays showing the most significant events in the village’s history. As we stroll, the director details the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to look after their crops; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the pair, for fear that they sought to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most frequently, but over two times more people (exceeding 300) died trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between two political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They nor did they endorsed the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Roughly 15k came to see every year, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Modern Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and large car park – is probable to