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An brook so shallow you hardly got your feet wet separated a village for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a frontier that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a partition. United States military personnel called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of residents started memorialising their heritage. The effort is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was formally inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely finished. Addressing the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal division, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the locals drinking in the same pub, visiting the very same place of worship and sending their children to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Russians erected timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the complete village, setting up their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces convinced them to retreat to the other side of the stream. For a time, locals could continue to hop over, though as limitations increased they were forced to display ID, even though everyone understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with mines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The locals could still see each other by ascending elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a western resident who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted much of his working life building it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how what length of wall they wished to keep. They selected a section on the west edge, close to where a villager managed to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, after which the frontier was significantly fortified.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of guard towers are preserved in addition to a set of tableaux showing the most dramatic dates in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, Lebergen lists the restrictions: not a single person could approach 5km of the boundary. Rural residents needed specific authorization to look after their produce; the spouse could operate the combine harvester but never both, for fear that they attempted to flee. Military personnel stood watch.

Wider Context

The frontier between Western Germany and the GDR stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and honored the most, but more than double the number people (exceeding 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their farms. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the village became a kind of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k visited each year, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

25 years after unification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary village like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh curiosity.

Modern Changes

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, film screening area and large car park – is likely to