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A creek so low you barely got your feet wet separated a community for over four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own division was breached, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a assembly of residents set about memorialising their history. The effort is soon to be completed: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite prepared. Speaking to the locals who experienced the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an inhuman division, which tore families apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an cruel split, which pulled relatives into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Historical Context

Even at its creation in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Bavarian Kingdom and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for giving all its men the title Heinrich and counting them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the inhabitants gathering in the very same tavern, attending the same place of worship and sending their kids to the same educational institution.

Following WWII Division

Then came the global conflict. The moment they came, the Russian troops erected timber poles by the creek. For a annual period they took over the entire village, establishing their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The US forces urged them to retreat back over the brook. For a time, residents could still jump across, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to present identification, despite the fact that each person understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. One woman was put on a East German secret police watch list for responding “likewise” to a West German villager who wished her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

I heard accounts such as these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career creating it. Residents were polled at an early stage about how much structure they wished to maintain. They chose a stretch on the west edge, near where one of their own was able to flee in the darkest hours with a climbing device, after which the border was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

2 guard towers are maintained together with a set of tableaux showing the most significant dates in the community’s history. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Farmers had to obtain special permission to look after their crops; the husband or wife could use the combine harvester but never the two, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Armed guards stood watch.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between West Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of two times more persons (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the urban center. Lebegern reminds me that almost all of attempts to flee failed.

Village Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between a pair of political systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their land. They neither endorsed the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Roughly fifteen thousand came to see annually, optical devices in their hands, to look – and then rapidly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, caused new curiosity.

Modern Developments

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, boutique, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is expected to