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An brook so shallow you barely got your feet wet split a settlement for more than four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by evergreen groves, pastures and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a border that was marked first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents set about documenting their past. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the residents who endured the old days, Steinmeier remarked: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were observers of an inhuman division, which pulled relatives apart and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Past Context

Starting at its founding in 1810, the community cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for giving all its men the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the residents socializing in the identical tavern, going to the identical church and placing their kids to the very same educational institution.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces erected wood stakes by the brook. For a annual period they occupied the entire hamlet, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers convinced them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a while, locals could continue to cross over, though as restrictions tightened they were forced to present ID, even though everyone knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Escalation of Boundary Controls

Then, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was built, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could continue to see each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and calling out were prohibited. One woman was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “back at you” to a Bavarian local who said her “happy new year”.

Heritage Site Establishment

It was related to me stories including these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career building it. Locals were consulted early on about how much barrier they desired to keep. They chose a stretch on the Bavarian fringe, adjacent to where a villager managed to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the frontier was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

2 watchtowers are conserved together with a series of exhibits showing the most significant events in the village’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern details the regulations: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Farmers needed particular approval to care for their fields; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but not both, lest they sought to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Wider Context

The border between Western Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to this location in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but in excess of double the number persons (more than 300) were killed trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the urban center. the director reminds me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adapted to living in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their farms. They neither supported the socialist government nor resisted it, Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. Approximately 15k came to visit every year, viewing tools in possession, to look – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary community like Mödlareuth, resulted in new attention.

Modern Developments

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and big parking lot – is expected to