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A brook so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet separated a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. Because of a chance of geography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a boundary that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and prior to their state had reunified in 1990, a assembly of villagers began documenting their history. The project is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the exhibition was not completely prepared. Addressing the villagers who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore families asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its male members the title Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the identical tavern, visiting the identical church and enrolling their kids to the same school.

After the War Split

Then came the global conflict. The moment they arrived, the Russians put up wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they occupied the whole hamlet, creating their headquarters in a house on the Bavarian side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as limitations became stricter they were required to show identity papers, although everyone understood who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Controls

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a wall was built, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The locals could continue to see each other by climbing slopes, but on the east side signaling and shouting were banned. One woman was placed on a East German secret police watch list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Development

I heard accounts like these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time creating it. Villagers were consulted in the initial phases about how how long a section structure they wished to maintain. They chose a section on the Bavarian perimeter, close to where a local resident succeeded to escape in the middle of the night with a ladder, subsequently the boundary was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Buildings

Two guard towers are maintained together with a collection of displays depicting the most impactful dates in the village’s history. As we walk, the director enumerates the regulations: nobody could come within 5km of the boundary. Rural residents had to obtain specific authorization to care for their crops; the partner could work the agricultural equipment but never both, lest they attempted to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Broader Context

The border between West Germany and the GDR stretched 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the greatest, but over twice as many people (well over 300) were killed seeking to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were farmers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between two belief systems by avoiding attention and tending to their fields. They neither backed the East German authorities nor opposed it, Lebegern clarifies.

Interest

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of destination. About 15k came to see every year, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

25 years after merger, the TV show, a TV series about a made-up community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed curiosity.

Current Evolutions

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