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An creek so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet divided a village for over four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

Months after their own division was opened, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a group of villagers started commemorating their past. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel division, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which pulled households into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the residents gathering in the same pub, visiting the very same church and sending their young ones to the identical learning center.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the whole village, setting up their control center in a house on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers persuaded them to withdraw back over the stream. For a while, residents could still hop over, though as controls tightened they were obliged to display identity papers, even though all was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Border Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was erected, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The residents could still view each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were banned. One woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a western local who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a significant portion of his working life building it. Residents were asked early on about how what length of structure they wished to preserve. They opted for a section on the Bavarian fringe, close to where a local resident managed to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the boundary was substantially fortified.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of observation towers are preserved in addition to a series of exhibits showing the most impactful events in the village’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern details the rules: nobody could come within 5km of the frontier. Farmers required particular approval to care for their crops; the husband or wife could use the harvesting machine but never the pair, in case they attempted to escape. Military personnel kept guard.

Broader Perspective

The border between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but over two times more persons (more than 300) died seeking to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director tells me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between a pair of ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their fields. They did not supported the socialist government nor opposed it, the director states.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a kind of destination. About fifteen thousand visited each year, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

25 years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, led to fresh attention.

Current Changes

The opening of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is probable to