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A brook so low you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. By an accident of topography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a fence and then by a wall. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own barrier was opened, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a group of villagers started commemorating their history. The work is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Addressing the villagers who experienced the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which tore families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which pulled households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the community spanned the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for giving all its male descendants the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the identical pub, going to the identical church and enrolling their young ones to the same educational institution.

After the War Division

Next arrived the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Russians installed wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the entire hamlet, setting up their control center in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces convinced them to pull back back over the stream. For a while, residents could still cross over, though as limitations tightened they were required to present ID, despite the fact that all knew who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Boundary Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came metal barriers and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with explosives, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could still observe each other by scaling hills, but on the eastern side waving and yelling were banned. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police watch list for answering “likewise” to a West German resident who wished her “happy new year”.

Museum Establishment

I was told accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent a large part of his occupational time creating it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how what length of wall they desired to keep. They chose a portion on the west fringe, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to escape in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

Two observation towers are maintained alongside a series of exhibits showing the most significant moments in the community’s history. As we stroll, the director lists the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the border. Agricultural workers required special permission to look after their fields; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but not the two, lest they tried to make a run for it. Soldiers stood watch.

Broader Context

The border between West Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most, but more than double the number individuals (exceeding 300) were killed trying to pass over it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that almost all of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to living in the ambiguous area between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They neither supported the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the village became a type of pilgrimage. About 15,000 came to see annually, viewing tools in their hands, to stare – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional village resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, cinema room and sizable car park – is probable to