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An stream so shallow you scarcely got your ankles wet split a community for more than four decades of time. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the core of the Cold War conflict. They had the misfortune to span the Bavarian region, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a border that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Several months after their own division was breached, and before their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of residents began documenting their past. The work is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the collapse of the Wall in Berlin, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly inaugurated by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the display wasn’t quite ready. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were observers of an brutal split, which pulled households asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were observers of an brutal division, which tore families apart and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

Historical Origins

Even at its establishment in 1810, the village cut across the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family best known for giving all its male descendants the title Heinrich and numbering them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the quirk did not stand in the path of the residents gathering in the same tavern, visiting the same religious building and placing their children to the same school.

After the War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the creek. For a twelve months they seized the entire community, setting up their headquarters in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a communist symbol. The Americans convinced them to withdraw across the stream. For a period, villagers could continue to hop over, though as controls increased they were required to present ID, although all knew who they were, and to come back at after dark.

Intensification of Border Controls

After that, in 1952, came barbed wire and the formal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a concrete structure was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and watchtowers. The locals could still observe each other by ascending slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and yelling were banned. One woman was added to a Stasi surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a western villager who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told accounts including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent much of his professional career developing it. Residents were consulted early on about how what length of structure they wanted to maintain. They chose a portion on the western fringe, adjacent to where a villager succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the frontier was significantly strengthened.

Preserved Structures

Two observation towers are conserved in addition to a series of exhibits illustrating the most impactful moments in the hamlet’s history. As we walk, Lebergen lists the restrictions: no one could come within 5km of the border. Rural residents needed particular approval to care for their crops; the spouse could operate the harvesting machine but not the pair, lest they sought to escape. Armed guards stood watch.

Broader Background

The border between the Federal Republic and the East Germany ran 1,400 kilometers, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the greatest, but over twice as many individuals (well over 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s locals were agricultural workers or craftsmen, who accommodated to residing in the ambiguous area between 2 belief systems by staying low-profile and tending to their land. They neither endorsed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. Approximately 15k came to see each year, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

25 years after merger, the television series, a broadcast production about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Present-Day Evolutions

The opening of the modern exhibition center – with a cafe, shop, film screening area and large parking lot – is expected to