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A stream so narrow you scarcely got your feet wet split a community for more than four decades of time. By an accident of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet encircled by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the core of the cold war. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a frontier that was marked first by a barrier and then by a barricade. US troops nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

Several months after their own wall was breached, and even before their nation had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents began documenting their heritage. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the demolition of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely ready. Telling the locals who endured the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an cruel split, which ripped households asunder and turned local residents into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned neighbors into aliens.”

Bygone Context

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a princely house most famous for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk never stood in the path of the locals socializing in the identical pub, visiting the very same place of worship and placing their kids to the very same school.

Following WWII Split

Then came the World War II. Immediately after they arrived, the Russian troops installed wood stakes by the stream. For a annual period they seized the whole community, setting up their control center in a dwelling on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The American soldiers urged them to withdraw back over the brook. For a time, locals could still jump across, though as restrictions increased they were obliged to display identification, although each person understood who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Border Controls

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the official closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a wall was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and guard posts. The residents could continue to view each other by ascending slopes, but on the Soviet side gesturing and calling out were banned. One woman was put on a Stasi surveillance list for replying “likewise” to a Bavarian local who wished her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated much of his occupational time developing it. Locals were consulted at an early stage about how what length of wall they wanted to preserve. They opted for a stretch on the Bavarian edge, near where one of their own managed to escape in the darkest hours with a climbing device, subsequently the border was significantly reinforced.

Conserved Installations

A pair of watchtowers are conserved in addition to a collection of tableaux showing the most impactful events in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen lists the restrictions: not a single person could come within 5km of the border. Farmers required particular approval to tend to their fields; the partner could operate the agricultural equipment but under no circumstances the two, for fear that they sought to make a run for it. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Context

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most frequently, but over twice as many people (more than 300) lost their lives attempting to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that almost all of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Village Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or skilled workers, who adapted to dwelling in the ambiguous area between 2 political systems by keeping their heads down and tending to their farms. They did not supported the communist regime nor opposed it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the settlement became a sort of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to see annually, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, caused renewed curiosity.

Current Changes

The inauguration of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, boutique, film screening area and big car park – is probable to