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A creek so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a settlement for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

Months after their own barrier was breached, and prior to their state had unified again in 1990, a group of residents began commemorating their past. The effort is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Speaking to the locals who experienced the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which tore families apart and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Even at its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage best known for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and counting them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity never stood in the way of the locals gathering in the same inn, going to the very same religious building and enrolling their kids to the same school.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the creek. For a year they occupied the entire village, setting up their control center in a building on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to pull back back over the stream. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to present identification, despite the fact that all understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was erected, with explosives, tank traps and watchtowers. The villagers could still view each other by climbing hills, but on the east side signaling and shouting were banned. One woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “back at you” to a western local who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I heard narratives like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his occupational time developing it. Locals were consulted early on about how how long a section structure they wanted to keep. They opted for a section on the west fringe, close to where one of their own was able to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, after which the boundary was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of watchtowers are preserved alongside a collection of tableaux depicting the most impactful dates in the community’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed specific authorization to care for their fields; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, in case they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Broader Context

The border between Western Germany and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the greatest, but over two times more persons (more than 300) died trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Robert Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee failed.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They did not endorsed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a type of destination. About 15k came to see every year, binoculars in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Modern Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and sizable car park – is expected to