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An creek so shallow you scarcely got your feet wet divided a community for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of geography, the fifty residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the East, a border that was marked first by a barrier and then by a partition. US troops dubbed it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a group of local people started memorialising their history. The project is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the exhibition was not entirely finished. Speaking to the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal split, which tore families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Bygone Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage best known for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals socializing in the identical inn, visiting the very same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the identical school.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. As soon as they arrived, the Russian troops put up timber poles by the stream. For a year they occupied the complete community, creating their command in a house on the Bavarian territory side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw back over the creek. For a while, villagers could continue to jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were obliged to present identification, despite the fact that each person was aware who they were, and to come back at night.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with explosives, tank traps and guard posts. The villagers could still observe each other by scaling slopes, but on the east side signaling and calling out were prohibited. A female resident was added to a GDR intelligence watch list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who greeted her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a large part of his working life creating it. Locals were consulted in the initial phases about how much structure they wished to keep. They opted for a stretch on the west edge, adjacent to where one of their own succeeded to flee in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the border was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are conserved together with a series of exhibits illustrating the most impactful moments in the community’s history. As we move, Robert Lebegern lists the rules: nobody could approach 5km of the frontier. Farmers had to obtain special permission to care for their crops; the spouse could work the combine harvester but not the pair, lest they sought to flee. Armed guards kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The border between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and memorialised the most, but more than twice as many individuals (exceeding 300) lost their lives seeking to cross it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director informs me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Village Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or craftsmen, who accommodated to dwelling in the ambiguous area between a pair of belief systems by keeping their heads down and caring for their farms. They did not supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a kind of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand visited each year, optical devices in possession, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defence minister.

Twenty five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, caused new interest.

Current Evolutions

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a restaurant, boutique, movie theater and large car park – is expected to