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A brook so narrow you barely got your feet wet separated a settlement for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a wall. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of local people set about memorialising their past. The project is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely prepared. Addressing the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal split, which pulled households apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the locals gathering in the very same tavern, visiting the same church and enrolling their kids to the very same school.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces put up timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they took over the whole hamlet, establishing their control center in a building on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw across the brook. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to show identification, although everyone understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Intensification of Border Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still view each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side signaling and shouting were prohibited. A female resident was added to a Stasi surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a western local who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how what length of barrier they desired to maintain. They chose a stretch on the western edge, close to where a local resident managed to flee in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Structures

2 guard towers are maintained together with a set of displays showing the most dramatic moments in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the border. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to look after their fields; the partner could use the harvesting machine but never both, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Wider Context

The border between Western Germany and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but more than two times more individuals (well over 300) died trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They nor did they endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k came to see annually, optical devices in their hands, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a imaginary hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Modern Evolutions

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and sizable vehicle area – is expected to