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A creek so narrow you barely got your feet wet divided a community for over four decades. By an accident of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the misfortune to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Memorialising History

Several months after their own division was breached, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of local people started memorialising their history. The work is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the residents who endured the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which pulled households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the community spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the path of the inhabitants socializing in the very same pub, going to the identical place of worship and sending their kids to the very same school.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the stream. For a annual period they occupied the entire community, establishing their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a while, locals could still cross over, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to display identity papers, although all was aware who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still see each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and shouting were banned. A female resident was added to a Stasi surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his working life creating it. Residents were asked at an early stage about how how long a section structure they desired to preserve. They chose a section on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, after which the boundary was substantially fortified.

Maintained Buildings

2 observation towers are maintained in addition to a series of displays illustrating the most impactful dates in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: not a single person could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Farmers needed specific authorization to tend to their fields; the partner could use the harvesting machine but never the two, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Context

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of twice as many persons (more than 300) died attempting to pass over it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director informs me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Hamlet Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They did not backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the village became a kind of destination. About 15k came to see annually, optical devices in hand, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up village resembling Mödlareuth, led to renewed interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The inauguration of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and sizable vehicle area – is likely to