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A brook so shallow you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for over four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by pine forests, pastures and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was demarcated first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own wall was breached, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers started commemorating their past. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not completely prepared. Speaking to the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped relatives apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

Past Background

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a princely house best known for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity was never an obstacle in the path of the locals gathering in the identical pub, attending the very same place of worship and enrolling their children to the very same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Then came the global conflict. The moment they came, the Soviet forces put up timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the complete village, establishing their headquarters in a building on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces urged them to pull back back over the stream. For a time, residents could continue to cross over, though as limitations tightened they were obliged to display ID, despite the fact that everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at night.

Escalation of Border Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with landmines, tank traps and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by ascending elevations, but on the east side signaling and shouting were prohibited. One woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a West German local who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

It was related to me accounts like these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were polled at an early stage about how much structure they wanted to keep. They selected a section on the west fringe, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the boundary was substantially fortified.

Conserved Installations

2 observation towers are preserved together with a collection of displays showing the most significant dates in the community’s history. As we stroll, Lebergen lists the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain particular approval to tend to their fields; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but under no circumstances the two, in case they tried to flee. Armed guards were on duty.

Broader Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the East Germany stretched 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the greatest, but over two times more persons (more than 300) were killed trying to cross it in rural areas than in the big city. the director reminds me that 95 percent of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were farmers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between a pair of belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They nor did they supported the socialist government nor fought it, the director states.

Interest

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. About fifteen thousand visited every year, binoculars in their hands, to gawp – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty five years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a made-up village similar to Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Current Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and big car park – is likely to