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A brook so low you barely got your feet wet split a village for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by evergreen groves, pastures and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

Months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a group of villagers set about commemorating their heritage. The work is soon to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Telling the locals who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an cruel split, which tore households asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Background

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the path of the residents gathering in the very same inn, going to the identical church and placing their kids to the same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the entire hamlet, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw across the brook. For a while, locals could still hop over, though as controls tightened they were forced to present identity papers, although all was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could continue to see each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side waving and yelling were prohibited. One woman was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for responding “back at you” to a western resident who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me accounts including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a large part of his occupational time creating it. Residents were consulted in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they desired to maintain. They opted for a section on the western fringe, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a scaling tool, after which the frontier was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Structures

2 observation towers are conserved in addition to a collection of tableaux depicting the most significant moments in the hamlet’s past. As we move, Lebergen details the regulations: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain special permission to care for their crops; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances both, lest they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers stood watch.

Larger Context

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic ran 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the greatest, but in excess of twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) were killed trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between two political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to visit annually, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary community like Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Current Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and large vehicle area – is expected to