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An brook so low you barely got your feet wet split a village for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people set about documenting their history. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the residents who experienced the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbors into strangers.”

Historical Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity never stood in the way of the residents socializing in the same tavern, attending the very same religious building and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

Post-War Split

Subsequently occurred the World War II. Immediately after they came, the Russians installed wood stakes by the stream. For a year they occupied the entire village, establishing their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a period, residents could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to present identification, although all understood who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Boundary Controls

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were banned. One woman was added to a Stasi watch list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me narratives including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were polled in the initial phases about how much barrier they wanted to preserve. They opted for a section on the west edge, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Maintained Structures

2 guard towers are preserved alongside a set of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic events in the community’s chronicle. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the rules: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents required special permission to tend to their fields; the partner could use the harvesting machine but not the two, in case they sought to flee. Soldiers stood watch.

Wider Background

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number people (exceeding 300) died attempting to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or artisans, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They did not supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a kind of pilgrimage. About 15,000 came to visit every year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Modern Developments

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and big vehicle area – is expected to