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An creek so shallow you barely got your ankles wet split a community for more than four decades. By an accident of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a boundary that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own wall was breached, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of local people set about commemorating their history. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Telling the locals who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal separation, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which tore relatives into pieces and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Context

Even at its founding in 1810, the hamlet cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk never stood in the way of the locals socializing in the identical pub, going to the identical church and enrolling their kids to the identical educational institution.

Post-War Split

Next arrived the second world war. As soon as they came, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the stream. For a year they took over the entire village, setting up their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to withdraw across the brook. For a period, villagers could still hop over, though as restrictions increased they were forced to show identity papers, despite the fact that each person understood who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was built, with landmines, tank traps and observation points. The residents could still observe each other by climbing slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was put on a Stasi monitoring list for replying “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I heard accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent much of his occupational time building it. Villagers were polled early on about how what length of wall they wanted to keep. They chose a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Maintained Buildings

Two watchtowers are preserved together with a set of exhibits illustrating the most significant events in the community’s history. As we move, the director enumerates the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to care for their produce; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but not both, lest they sought to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Background

The boundary between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of two times more persons (exceeding 300) were killed seeking to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Village Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between two political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor fought it, the director explains.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly fifteen thousand came to see every year, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Present-Day Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a restaurant, store, movie theater and large parking lot – is likely to