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An creek so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for in excess of four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers set about memorialising their past. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Telling the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman split, which ripped relatives asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel division, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Bygone Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the very same inn, going to the identical place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the very same school.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russians installed wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they seized the entire hamlet, setting up their control center in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a period, residents could still cross over, though as controls became stricter they were forced to display identification, although each person understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “same to you” to a western local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time creating it. Locals were asked early on about how how long a section barrier they desired to maintain. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Installations

Two watchtowers are maintained in addition to a series of exhibits depicting the most dramatic moments in the community’s past. As we walk, Lebergen lists the rules: no one could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to look after their fields; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, lest they sought to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Wider Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the greatest, but more than two times more persons (well over 300) were killed seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They neither backed the East German authorities nor fought it, the director states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of pilgrimage. About 15,000 came to see every year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional community similar to Mödlareuth, caused fresh curiosity.

Current Changes

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and big vehicle area – is expected to