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An brook so narrow you barely got your feet wet divided a village for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

A few months after their own division was breached, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of residents set about documenting their history. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which pulled households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Starting at its creation in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the manner of the residents gathering in the same tavern, going to the identical religious building and sending their kids to the same school.

After the War Division

Then came the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they seized the complete community, creating their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the brook. For a while, villagers could continue to hop over, though as controls became stricter they were required to show ID, even though each person knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could continue to see each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A local woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a West German resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Locals were asked early on about how what length of barrier they wished to maintain. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian fringe, near where one of their own was able to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the boundary was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Structures

A pair of watchtowers are maintained together with a series of displays depicting the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s history. As we stroll, the director details the rules: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain particular approval to care for their produce; the spouse could use the combine harvester but never both, for fear that they attempted to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The border between West Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many persons (well over 300) were killed attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They did not endorsed the socialist government nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of destination. Roughly 15,000 visited each year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

25 years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and big vehicle area – is expected to