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An stream so narrow you hardly got your feet wet divided a community for more than four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the bad luck to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of local people set about commemorating their past. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show was not completely ready. Addressing the locals who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an inhuman separation, which pulled families into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were observers of an inhuman split, which ripped households apart and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Bygone Context

Right from its establishment in 1810, the village straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for assigning all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth order. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants socializing in the same tavern, attending the same religious building and enrolling their kids to the very same learning center.

After the War Split

Then came the global conflict. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops erected wooden posts by the brook. For a twelve months they took over the complete community, setting up their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw to the other side of the stream. For a period, villagers could continue to jump across, though as controls became stricter they were required to show identification, although all understood who they were, and to come back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

After that, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was erected, with landmines, tank traps and guard posts. The locals could still see each other by scaling elevations, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were forbidden. A local woman was added to a Stasi surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a West German villager who wished her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard accounts including these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has spent much of his working life building it. Residents were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section barrier they desired to maintain. They selected a section on the west perimeter, close to where a local resident succeeded to get away in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Conserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are conserved in addition to a collection of exhibits showing the most dramatic moments in the community’s past. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain particular approval to care for their produce; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, in case they sought to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number individuals (well over 300) died seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the urban center. Lebegern tells me that almost all of efforts to cross did not succeed.

Village Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the uncertain territory between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They nor did they supported the communist regime nor opposed it, the director clarifies.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the village became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to visit annually, binoculars in possession, to gawp – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, the TV show, a TV series about a fictional hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the new museum – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and sizable parking lot – is likely to