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An stream so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a settlement for more than four decades of time. By an accident of landscape, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a small village bordered by evergreen groves, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the center of the cold war. They had the bad luck to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was established first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was breached, and before their state had unified again in 1990, a assembly of villagers started commemorating their history. The effort is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the display was not entirely finished. Telling the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which tore households into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which tore households asunder and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Background

Starting at its creation in 1810, the hamlet spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most famous for giving all its men the designation Heinrich and counting them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier related to the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the way of the residents drinking in the same pub, going to the very same church and sending their children to the identical learning center.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they arrived, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they seized the complete village, creating their headquarters in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to pull back to the other side of the stream. For a period, locals could continue to jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to show ID, although everyone was aware who they were, and to return at night.

Escalation of Border Measures

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal sealing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was constructed, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could still see each other by climbing slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were banned. A local woman was added to a East German secret police watch list for responding “likewise” to a West German resident who greeted her “happy new year”.

Exhibition Center Establishment

It was related to me stories such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his working life creating it. Locals were polled in the initial phases about how what length of structure they desired to keep. They selected a portion on the Bavarian edge, close to where a local resident was able to escape in the dead of night with a climbing device, following which the boundary was heavily reinforced.

Conserved Structures

A pair of guard towers are maintained in addition to a collection of exhibits depicting the most significant dates in the community’s chronicle. As we move, the director details the rules: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Agricultural workers had to obtain special permission to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but never the pair, in case they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Larger Perspective

The border between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and honored the most frequently, but over two times more people (more than 300) died trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern informs me that almost all of efforts to cross failed.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adapted to residing in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and looking after their land. They nor did they backed the East German authorities nor fought it, Lebegern states.

Interest

For tourists, however, the hamlet became a sort of site of interest. Roughly fifteen thousand visited each year, optical devices in their hands, to gawp – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up hamlet resembling Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh attention.

Present-Day Developments

The launch of the modern exhibition center – with a restaurant, store, cinema room and sizable vehicle area – is likely to