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A brook so shallow you barely got your feet wet divided a village for more than four decades. Due to a quirk of topography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by evergreen groves, pastures and stunning scenery, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Preserving History

A few months after their own division was opened, and even before their country had become one in 1990, a collection of residents began documenting their history. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was officially opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely ready. Addressing the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an cruel division, which tore relatives asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which tore households apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for giving all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the residents gathering in the very same pub, visiting the very same church and sending their kids to the same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they arrived, the Russians installed timber poles by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the whole village, creating their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat across the brook. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were required to show identity papers, although all understood who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the formal sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The residents could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was added to a Stasi surveillance list for replying “same to you” to a West German local who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

It was related to me accounts including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Locals were asked in the initial phases about how what length of barrier they wished to preserve. They opted for a section on the Bavarian fringe, close to where a villager managed to get away in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the boundary was substantially strengthened.

Preserved Installations

2 watchtowers are preserved alongside a set of tableaux illustrating the most dramatic moments in the community’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen lists the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to look after their crops; the spouse could use the combine harvester but not the pair, for fear that they attempted to flee. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but over twice as many individuals (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They nor did they backed the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand came to see each year, viewing tools in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to new curiosity.

Modern Evolutions

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, shop, film screening area and big car park – is expected to