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An stream so low you hardly got your feet wet separated a village for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of villagers started memorialising their history. The work is close 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 formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite finished. Speaking to the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel division, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a princely house most famous for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the peculiarity never stood in the manner of the residents gathering in the same pub, attending the very same religious building and sending their young ones to the same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Then came the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the stream. For a annual period they took over the complete village, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw across the creek. For a while, locals could continue to hop over, though as limitations tightened they were required to show identity papers, although each person knew who they were, and to return at evening.

Escalation of Boundary Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was added to a Stasi watch list for responding “likewise” to a western resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career developing it. Residents were consulted early on about how what length of wall they desired to keep. They opted for a portion on the western fringe, close to where a local resident managed to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, subsequently the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Installations

Two observation towers are maintained together with a set of exhibits depicting the most significant dates in the community’s history. As we walk, the director lists the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required specific authorization to look after their produce; the partner could work the combine harvester but never the two, for fear that they attempted to escape. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Background

The boundary between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but over twice as many individuals (well over 300) were killed trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They neither supported the East German authorities nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a kind of site of interest. About 15,000 visited annually, optical devices in their hands, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and big car park – is likely to