This is really interesting thank you very much for the post!
Some people never lived with their countries having physical borders with neighbouring one. I hope they do know how lucky they are, and how privileged now can feel people, who did had to travel through those when they did existed, or have to travel now in places where they still are in place.
So was it practically an open border since at least 1970?
Interesting to see that even then the Dutch side of the street was better organized in terms of road layout. Dedicated parking spaces to prevent parking on the road, no cyclists on a 50 kmh road, but a pedestrian/cycle lane behind parking lots, no need to drive on the middle of the road.
5 comments
The picture shows the former border wall between Kerkrade (Netherlands) and Herzogenrath (Germany) which stood there from 1970 to 1993.
Here the Google Street View of the [same street today](https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8499135,6.0748494,3a,75y,345.25h,90.88t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPXzxPKSBeC_a6Z-8cWtJIC27TSRxAy_2N4KGj0!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPXzxPKSBeC_a6Z-8cWtJIC27TSRxAy_2N4KGj0%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya268.05005-ro0-fo100!7i5472!8i2736) (Netherlands left, Germany right)
The German half of the street is named Neustraße, the Dutch half Nieuwstraat which both mean “New Street” in English.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerkrade#The_border_along_Nieuwstraat.2FNeustra.C3.9Fe
At the end of the street is this building: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Ende_der_Neustr._Eurode_Business_Center.JPG
The border goes right through the middle: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:EBC-Grenze.JPG
This is really interesting thank you very much for the post!
Some people never lived with their countries having physical borders with neighbouring one. I hope they do know how lucky they are, and how privileged now can feel people, who did had to travel through those when they did existed, or have to travel now in places where they still are in place.
So was it practically an open border since at least 1970?
Interesting to see that even then the Dutch side of the street was better organized in terms of road layout. Dedicated parking spaces to prevent parking on the road, no cyclists on a 50 kmh road, but a pedestrian/cycle lane behind parking lots, no need to drive on the middle of the road.
Not much has changed hehe.