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A brook so low you hardly got your ankles wet separated a community for over four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by pine forests, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their state had become one in 1990, a group of villagers started documenting their heritage. The work is close 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 begin operations. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the residents who experienced the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped relatives apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which tore relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male descendants the designation Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the oddity never stood in the path of the residents gathering in the very same pub, visiting the very same church and enrolling their children to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Russians put up timber poles by the creek. For a year they took over the complete village, creating their command in a building on the western side, decorating it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to retreat across the creek. For a while, residents could continue to cross over, though as restrictions increased they were required to present ID, although all knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could continue to see each other by climbing hills, but on the eastern side waving and shouting were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a western resident who wished her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

I heard stories like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his working life developing it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how what length of structure they wanted to maintain. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Structures

Two watchtowers are maintained in addition to a series of tableaux illustrating the most impactful dates in the community’s past. As we walk, Lebergen details the rules: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents required specific authorization to look after their produce; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but not the two, in case they sought to escape. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the GDR ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of twice as many persons (more than 300) died attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director tells me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adapted to dwelling in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They nor did they endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit annually, optical devices in hand, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, caused new curiosity.

Current Developments

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and big car park – is expected to