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An creek so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a village for in excess of four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a enclosure and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

Several months after their own division was breached, and even before their country had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people began commemorating their history. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely ready. Speaking to the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel division, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Context

Right from its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity did not stand in the manner of the residents drinking in the same tavern, visiting the identical place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the same educational institution.

Post-War Split

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they appeared, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the entire community, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a while, villagers could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to display identity papers, although everyone understood who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was constructed, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side signaling and yelling were forbidden. A local woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for responding “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I was told stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time building it. Villagers were asked at an early stage about how how long a section barrier they wished to preserve. They opted for a portion on the west edge, close to where a local resident succeeded to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Installations

A pair of observation towers are maintained in addition to a set of tableaux illustrating the most impactful events in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern lists the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain specific authorization to care for their fields; the spouse could work the combine harvester but never the two, for fear that they sought to flee. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of double the number people (well over 300) died seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. the director informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the grey zone between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They nor did they supported the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand came to see every year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Modern Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, film screening area and big parking lot – is expected to