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A creek so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was marked first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own division was opened, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people set about documenting their heritage. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely prepared. Telling the residents who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel division, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Bygone Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the residents drinking in the same inn, visiting the same place of worship and sending their children to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the creek. For a year they occupied the whole community, establishing their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw back over the creek. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as restrictions increased they were forced to present ID, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The residents could still view each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “likewise” to a western resident who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

It was related to me stories including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his working life building it. Residents were consulted early on about how much structure they wished to preserve. They opted for a portion on the western edge, adjacent to where a local resident was able to escape in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the border was heavily fortified.

Maintained Buildings

Two guard towers are maintained alongside a set of displays showing the most dramatic dates in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen details the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to care for their crops; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but never both, lest they sought to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but over two times more individuals (more than 300) died trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. the director tells me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They neither backed the socialist government nor resisted it, the director explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to see every year, binoculars in their hands, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after merger, Tannbach, a television program about a imaginary village resembling Mödlareuth, led to fresh interest.

Present-Day Changes

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, cinema room and sizable car park – is likely to