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An stream so shallow you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a wall. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising Historical Events

Months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their state had unified again in 1990, a collection of residents began documenting their history. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth remembrance of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display wasn’t quite finished. Addressing the locals who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

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

Bygone Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most renowned for bestowing all its male descendants the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk never stood in the manner of the locals gathering in the identical tavern, visiting the same church and enrolling their children to the very same learning center.

Following WWII Split

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. Immediately after they appeared, the Russian troops erected wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the whole village, creating their headquarters in a building on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a time, villagers could continue to jump across, though as limitations tightened they were forced to show identification, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Border Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The villagers could continue to observe each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were prohibited. A female resident was put on a Stasi monitoring list for responding “same to you” to a West German villager who wished her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his working life creating it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how much wall they wanted to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian perimeter, near where a local resident managed to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Preserved Structures

2 observation towers are conserved together with a set of exhibits illustrating the most significant events in the hamlet’s past. As we move, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required specific authorization to look after their produce; the spouse could work the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the pair, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number people (well over 300) were killed trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Lebegern reminds me that 95% of escape attempts did not succeed.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to dwelling in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They did not backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, the director explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of pilgrimage. Approximately 15k came to see every year, optical devices in possession, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary community resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh curiosity.

Current Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and large car park – is probable to