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An brook so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet split a community for over four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own division was breached, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers started memorialising their heritage. The effort is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely finished. Telling the villagers who experienced the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which tore families asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which ripped households into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the same tavern, visiting the very same church and sending their kids to the same school.

Following WWII Split

Then came the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the stream. For a year they took over the whole village, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans convinced them to pull back back over the brook. For a time, residents could continue to cross over, though as limitations increased they were required to present identity papers, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Increase of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were banned. A female resident was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Development

I heard narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his working life building it. Residents were consulted early on about how what length of barrier they wanted to maintain. They opted for a stretch on the western edge, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the border was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Structures

2 observation towers are maintained alongside a set of displays showing the most dramatic moments in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, the director enumerates the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to care for their fields; the spouse could work the combine harvester but under no circumstances both, lest they sought to escape. Military personnel stood watch.

Larger Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and documented the most frequently, but more than double the number persons (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between a pair of belief systems by avoiding attention and caring for their fields. They did not supported the East German authorities nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. About 15,000 visited each year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after reunification, the TV show, a TV series about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Current Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and large vehicle area – is likely to