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An brook so low you scarcely got your ankles wet separated a settlement for over four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement encircled by evergreen groves, meadows and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a boundary that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. US troops dubbed it Small Berlin.

Preserving History

Several months after their own division was breached, and prior to their country had become one in 1990, a group of villagers set about commemorating their history. The effort is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was officially opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the display was not completely prepared. Speaking to the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an inhuman separation, which pulled families into pieces and turned local residents into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel split, which ripped families apart and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Background

Starting at its founding in 1810, the village spanned the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for assigning all its men the name Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier informed the gathering, the quirk did not stand in the path of the locals gathering in the same tavern, attending the identical church and enrolling their children to the identical school.

After the War Split

Then came the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Soviet forces put up wood stakes by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the complete village, creating their headquarters in a building on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans convinced them to withdraw across the creek. For a time, villagers could still cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were obliged to present ID, even though everyone knew who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official sealing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could still view each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side signaling and shouting were forbidden. One woman was added to a East German secret police monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a West German local who said her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I was told stories including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Locals were polled at an early stage about how what length of wall they wanted to preserve. They chose a section on the west perimeter, adjacent to where one of their own managed to get away in the dead of night with a scaling tool, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Conserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are conserved together with a collection of exhibits depicting the most dramatic events in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to tend to their crops; the partner could operate the combine harvester but under no circumstances the two, for fear that they tried to flee. Military personnel kept guard.

Wider Context

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany stretched nearly 900 miles, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the greatest, but in excess of twice as many individuals (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to pass over it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern reminds me that 95 percent of escape attempts failed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by avoiding attention and looking after their land. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor fought it, the director clarifies.

Visitors

For tourists, however, the settlement became a type of pilgrimage. About 15k came to see every year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then quickly go away. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a television program about a made-up hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a coffee shop, shop, film screening area and large vehicle area – is likely to