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A stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a settlement for over four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the 50 inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own division was breached, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a group of local people began commemorating their past. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not entirely prepared. Addressing the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal division, which pulled relatives asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals socializing in the identical tavern, visiting the very same church and enrolling their children to the very same school.

After the War Division

Next arrived the World War II. The moment they came, the Soviet forces erected wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they took over the complete hamlet, setting up their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to withdraw across the stream. For a time, locals could still jump across, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to show identity papers, although everyone knew who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Border Measures

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were banned. A female resident was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a West German resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated much of his professional career developing it. Villagers were consulted early on about how what length of wall they wished to maintain. They chose a portion on the west fringe, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, subsequently the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

2 watchtowers are preserved alongside a series of displays showing the most dramatic events in the village’s history. As we stroll, Lebergen enumerates the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to care for their crops; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, lest they sought to escape. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between Western Germany and the German Democratic Republic extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but over twice as many persons (well over 300) died trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that almost all of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their fields. They neither endorsed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to see each year, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

25 years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, store, film screening area and big car park – is expected to