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A stream so low you scarcely got your feet wet divided a community for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own division was torn down, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people set about memorialising their past. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely finished. Telling the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel division, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which tore families into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity did not stand in the path of the inhabitants gathering in the identical tavern, going to the very same church and sending their young ones to the identical learning center.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Russians installed timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they seized the whole community, setting up their command in a house on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to retreat back over the stream. For a while, residents could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to display ID, although everyone understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could continue to see each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for replying “likewise” to a West German villager who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

I heard stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his occupational time building it. Locals were polled early on about how much structure they wanted to preserve. They chose a section on the western perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own was able to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the boundary was heavily fortified.

Maintained Structures

2 observation towers are conserved in addition to a collection of exhibits illustrating the most significant moments in the community’s history. As we walk, the director details the rules: not a single person could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to care for their produce; the partner could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, lest they attempted to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Context

The border between Western Germany and the GDR extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but over two times more individuals (more than 300) lost their lives trying to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They neither backed the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit every year, viewing tools in possession, to gawp – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, the television series, a television program about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and sizable car park – is probable to