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A brook so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a village for in excess of four decades. By an accident of landscape, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Several months after their own division was breached, and before their nation had become one in 1990, a group of residents started documenting their heritage. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely finished. Addressing the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which tore families asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an cruel separation, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Even at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the residents gathering in the very same pub, going to the same church and sending their young ones to the identical educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they appeared, the Soviet forces installed wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they seized the complete community, establishing their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to withdraw across the stream. For a period, residents could continue to jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to present identification, despite the fact that each person knew who they were, and to come back at night.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with mines, tank traps and observation points. The villagers could still observe each other by scaling elevations, but on the Soviet side waving and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was put on a Stasi watch list for replying “likewise” to a western villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

It was related to me accounts including these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has devoted much of his working life developing it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how how long a section wall they wanted to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the western edge, close to where a local resident managed to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, after which the boundary was substantially fortified.

Preserved Installations

Two watchtowers are preserved alongside a series of displays illustrating the most significant dates in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed particular approval to look after their produce; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but never the pair, in case they tried to make a run for it. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the greatest, but over twice as many persons (exceeding 300) died trying to pass over it in countryside regions than in the big city. the director informs me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their farms. They neither supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Approximately fifteen thousand visited every year, optical devices in possession, to gawp – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the television series, a TV series about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and big car park – is probable to