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An stream so narrow you barely got your ankles wet divided a community for more than four decades worth of time. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by pine forests, fields and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own wall was breached, and even before their nation had become one in 1990, a group of local people began memorialising their past. The project is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th commemoration of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which tore families apart and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal split, which pulled families asunder and turned local residents into strangers.”

Bygone Origins

Even at its establishment 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 title Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the peculiarity never stood in the way of the residents socializing in the identical pub, attending the identical church and placing their children to the very same learning center.

After the War Split

Then came the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russians erected wooden posts by the stream. For a year they occupied the whole community, creating their control center in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw back over the stream. For a period, residents could still cross over, though as limitations increased they were forced to show ID, although each person was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Boundary Measures

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with landmines, tank traps and observation points. The residents could continue to observe each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side waving and shouting were banned. A female resident was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for answering “back at you” to a West German villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

I heard stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a significant portion of his professional career building it. Locals were polled early on about how what length of structure they wanted to maintain. They chose a section on the western fringe, close to where one of their own was able to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, subsequently the border was heavily reinforced.

Preserved Buildings

2 observation towers are maintained in addition to a series of exhibits illustrating the most significant moments in the village’s history. As we walk, Lebergen details the regulations: not a single person could come within 5km of the boundary. Farmers required special permission to tend to their crops; the spouse could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Context

The border between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but over twice as many people (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. the director tells me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Hamlet Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or artisans, who adapted to living in the grey zone between 2 ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They neither backed the communist regime nor fought it, the director states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a type of pilgrimage. About fifteen thousand came to see every year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

25 years after merger, the television series, a TV series about a made-up hamlet like Mödlareuth, resulted in new curiosity.

Present-Day Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is likely to