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A brook so low you scarcely got your ankles wet split a village for over four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and before their country had become one in 1990, a collection of villagers started documenting their history. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Addressing the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an brutal split, which pulled relatives asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage best known for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the oddity did not stand in the way of the residents gathering in the same inn, visiting the identical church and enrolling their young ones to the identical educational institution.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the whole hamlet, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a period, residents could continue to jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to present identification, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could still view each other by ascending hills, but on the Soviet side waving and calling out were banned. A local woman was put on a East German secret police monitoring list for responding “same to you” to a West German resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard narratives such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his occupational time building it. Residents were consulted in the initial phases about how much wall they wished to maintain. They opted for a section on the west perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own was able to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the border was significantly fortified.

Conserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are conserved in addition to a set of displays depicting the most impactful moments in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen lists the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed special permission to look after their produce; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but under no circumstances both, for fear that they tried to escape. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Context

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many individuals (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Village Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who adjusted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by staying low-profile and looking after their farms. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a kind of destination. Roughly 15k came to visit annually, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Current Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, boutique, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is likely to