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A creek so low you hardly got your feet wet split a village for more than four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a partition. United States military personnel nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own wall was breached, and prior to their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers started commemorating their heritage. The project is close to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the locals who lived through the past era, Steinmeier remarked: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an brutal split, which tore families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Bygone Background

Even at its founding in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for giving all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants drinking in the identical tavern, going to the identical religious building and placing their children to the very same learning center.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the second world war. The moment they appeared, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the whole hamlet, establishing their command in a building on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces convinced them to retreat to the other side of the brook. For a time, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were forced to show identification, even though each person knew who they were, and to go back at night.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side waving and yelling were banned. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence watch list for responding “likewise” to a Bavarian resident who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his working life developing it. Residents were consulted at an early stage about how much barrier they wanted to keep. They selected a stretch on the west edge, close to where one of their own managed to flee in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the border was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Structures

2 watchtowers are preserved alongside a collection of displays illustrating the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s past. As we walk, Lebergen details the restrictions: no one could approach 5km of the border. Farmers required particular approval to tend to their crops; the husband or wife could work the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but more than two times more individuals (exceeding 300) were killed trying to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. the director reminds me that 95% of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between 2 belief systems by keeping their heads down and looking after their fields. They did not backed the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of destination. Roughly 15k came to see annually, optical devices in their hands, to gawp – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed attention.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, store, film screening area and sizable car park – is expected to