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A stream so shallow you barely got your feet wet separated a village for over four decades of time. By an accident of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, pastures and spectacular scenery, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to span Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a frontier that was established first by a barrier and then by a partition. American soldiers dubbed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own wall was torn down, and before their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people started commemorating their past. The effort is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite prepared. Addressing the residents who experienced the former times, Steinmeier remarked: “You were bystanders of an brutal separation, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbours into aliens.”

“You were bystanders of an inhuman division, which ripped households into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Context

Right from its founding in 1810, the hamlet straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for bestowing all its men the name Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the oddity never stood in the way of the residents gathering in the same pub, going to the identical church and enrolling their children to the very same school.

After the War Separation

Subsequently occurred the World War II. The moment they arrived, the Russians put up wood stakes by the brook. For a year they occupied the whole hamlet, creating their command in a dwelling on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to pull back to the other side of the brook. For a while, locals could still hop over, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to display ID, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Frontier Measures

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The locals could continue to observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the east side signaling and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was put on a GDR intelligence surveillance list for replying “back at you” to a West German resident who said her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

I was told stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has devoted much of his working life creating it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how how long a section structure they wanted to maintain. They selected a stretch on the western edge, adjacent to where a local resident was able to flee in the dead of night with a ladder, following which the border was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Installations

A pair of observation towers are maintained in addition to a collection of exhibits depicting the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, Robert Lebegern lists the regulations: no one could get closer than 5km of the border. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to tend to their crops; the spouse could use the agricultural equipment but not the two, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The border between West Germany and the East Germany extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the northern part to the south in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most, but in excess of twice as many persons (exceeding 300) were killed trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Village Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s villagers were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the ambiguous area between a pair of political systems by staying low-profile and caring for their fields. They did not backed the communist regime nor opposed it, Robert Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a type of destination. Approximately fifteen thousand came to visit every year, binoculars in hand, to stare – and then rapidly go away. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was given a tour by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh interest.

Current Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and large vehicle area – is likely to