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An brook so narrow you hardly got your feet wet split a village for over four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by evergreen groves, fields and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a collection of local people began commemorating their history. The work is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Historical Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house best known for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and counting them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk never stood in the path of the residents drinking in the identical inn, visiting the same religious building and placing their children to the same learning center.

Following WWII Split

Next arrived the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the brook. For a annual period they seized the whole community, creating their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to pull back across the stream. For a period, locals could continue to jump across, though as restrictions increased they were required to present identity papers, even though everyone knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The residents could still view each other by climbing hills, but on the east side signaling and calling out were forbidden. One woman was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how how long a section wall they wished to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the western perimeter, close to where a villager succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, subsequently the boundary was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Structures

A pair of observation towers are maintained in addition to a series of exhibits showing the most significant events in the hamlet’s history. As we move, the director details the regulations: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to tend to their produce; the partner could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, for fear that they tried to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Context

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but in excess of double the number individuals (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to pass over it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor resisted it, the director states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a type of destination. About 15k came to visit every year, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a television program about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and large parking lot – is likely to