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An creek so low you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a village for in excess of four decades of time. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by pine forests, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. United States military personnel called it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a group of residents started documenting their history. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not entirely ready. Telling the locals who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were observers of an cruel split, which pulled families apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Background

Right from its creation in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for assigning all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals gathering in the identical inn, visiting the same church and placing their children to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Then came the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they took over the entire village, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw across the stream. For a while, residents could continue to cross over, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to present identification, although all was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The villagers could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were banned. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a West German local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I was told accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his professional career building it. Villagers were polled early on about how how long a section wall they wished to maintain. They selected a stretch on the west fringe, near where one of their own succeeded to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, following which the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

A pair of guard towers are preserved in addition to a collection of displays illustrating the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to care for their crops; the spouse could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, in case they attempted to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Context

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but over double the number persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between two belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They neither backed the socialist government nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a type of destination. About 15k came to visit each year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, caused renewed attention.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, movie theater and sizable car park – is probable to