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A brook so shallow you hardly got your ankles wet split a village for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of geography, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by pine forests, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Memorialising History

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents set about documenting their past. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display was not completely finished. Addressing the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an inhuman separation, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel division, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Past Origins

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its male members the designation Heinrich and numbering them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier related to the gathering, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the manner of the inhabitants socializing in the very same inn, attending the same religious building and enrolling their young ones to the same learning center.

After the War Division

Then came the World War II. As soon as they came, the Russian troops installed timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the complete hamlet, establishing their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to retreat back over the stream. For a period, residents could still jump across, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to display identity papers, although everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at evening.

Intensification of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with explosives, tank traps and observation points. The residents could still see each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side signaling and yelling were prohibited. One woman was placed on a Stasi surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a West German resident who greeted her “good new year”.

Museum Creation

It was related to me narratives such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career creating it. Residents were asked early on about how how long a section structure they wanted to preserve. They selected a section on the Bavarian fringe, close to where a local resident was able to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the boundary was significantly strengthened.

Maintained Structures

A pair of watchtowers are preserved alongside a collection of exhibits depicting the most dramatic dates in the community’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the rules: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their crops; the partner could use the agricultural equipment but never both, lest they sought to escape. Soldiers were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most, but over two times more individuals (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in countryside regions than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of escape attempts did not succeed.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between 2 political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They did not backed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a type of pilgrimage. Roughly fifteen thousand visited annually, binoculars in possession, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty five years after unification, the television series, a television program about a made-up community resembling Mödlareuth, caused fresh interest.

Current Evolutions

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and big car park – is likely to