East-West Divide Preserved in a German Village

30 September 2010

Visitors take photos from both sides of the former East/West German border wall in Moedlareuth, Germany, 3 Oct 2008 (file photo)

Perhaps nowhere in Germany are the effects of the Iron Curtain understood better than the tiny village of Moedlareuth. The village of just 50 people was divided down the middle after World War II, and separated for four decades.

Two abandoned guard towers, a long white wall, a fence topped with barbed wire and border posts stand as a testament to what people endured for more than 40 years.

After Germany's unconditional surrender in 1945, the Allies divided occupied Germany into four military zones; French in the southwest, British in the northwest, the United States in the south, and Soviet in the east.

Two states emerged. West Germany, a parliamentary democracy, a NATO member, a founding member of what since became the European Union and one of the world's largest economies, and East Germany a totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship allied with the Soviet Union.

When Germany was divided, first came a fence, and then a wall in Moedlareuth, separating East from West and in one case, brother from brother.

Germany was reunited in 1990, after the collapse of the East German communist government and the opening of the Berlin Wall.