Switzerland - Constance,
Germany, and Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, are divided cities these
days, with a strip of grass and two fences separating them after
the countries closed their borders to slow the spread of the
coronavirus.
In a park on Lake Constance's shoreline residents of both
cities normally move freely across an invisible line marking
where one nation ends and the other begins. But everything has
changed: Most Germans cannot come to Switzerland, most Swiss are
barred from Germany.
On Sunday, lovers, brothers and sisters, parents and their
children, and old friends pressed against the chain links in the
spring sunshine, just close enough to say "I love you", too far
apart to touch.
"This is our only chance to stand across from each other,
face-to-face," said Jean-Pierre Walter, a Swiss who drove an
hour from Zurich to see his German partner, Maja Bulic. "We can
at least speak to each other. That's something."
For weeks, they have telephoned or spoken over FaceTime. But
fiber optic is no substitute for flesh and blood.
"At some point, you have to see somebody in person," said
Bulic, who drove 2-1/2 hours from near Heidelberg. "It's
difficult, but I know one day it will be different."
German Maja Bulic and her Swiss friend Jean-Pierre Walter (R) talk through two fences set up by Swiss and German authorities on the German-Swiss border as a protection measure due to the spread of the coronavirus disease. Picture: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
This is a coronavirus no-man's land. It traces the route of
a barbed wire-topped barrier that split Switzerland and Germany
during World War Two and that was removed long ago.
The fences have become a meeting point for people divided by
the epidemic - and a reminder of its disruption for Europeans
accustomed to traveling where they please. Switzerland is not in
the European Union, but agreements allow Swiss and the bloc's
citizens to travel virtually unfettered, in normal times.
People talk through two fences set up by Swiss and German authorities on the German-Swiss border as a protection measure due to the spread of the coronavirus disease. Picture: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
As the coronavirus spread - it has killed 559 people and
infected 21,100 in Switzerland, while in Germany the toll is
1,342 dead and nearly 92,000 infected - the governments clamped
down on border traffic.
Currently, those Swiss and Germans with cross-border jobs
can go back and forth. For nearly everybody else, it's
forbidden.
The fence went up in mid-March as a single layer.
This week, officials added a second, since people were
passing beers, playing cards and kissing through the chain links
- hardly the required two-metre (six-foot) separation.
Kreuzlingen officials said of the decision that too many
people were not obeying the rules.
Swiss border police, reinforced by the Swiss Army, patrol
the Swiss side. An occasional German federal police squad car
makes the rounds just opposite.
While those at the fences said they largely accepted
personal deprivations to slow the spread of the disease, some
observed that the power of states to halt activities once taken
for granted was intimidating.
Germans, for whom a wall long divided East from West, said
they never imagined another one in Europe.
"It's like being in jail," said Veronica Campanile, a
Constance resident meeting friends from the Kreuzlingen side.
Dominik Loroff drove three hours from Munich to meet Michele
Graf-Ludin, from Winterthur, 50 minutes away in Switzerland.
They had read about the fence, how it had become a magnet for
those trapped on different sides of the coronavirus divide.
They had hoped to touch but settled for sharing chocolate
bars thrown quickly across when border police weren't looking.
"It's sad, when you consider the fate of individuals,"
Loroff said. "If it was still just one fence, it would be OK.
The second fence is tough."