What exactly is the hinterland here? Does the Nieuwstraat/Neustraße function as a kind of centre to both Herzogenrath and Kerkrade? Or does it create another centre – a third one? What is clear is that both towns do not just ‘fizzle out’ here ‘at the edge’. The street has become a destination of its own…
The people who live in and around the Nieuwstraat/Neustraße experience this street differently than I do as a visitor. I am here to see the street – they simply pass through it on their way to the supermarket or a family member. They know where to go, but I am reading the signs, making sure…
The border feels denigrating at times. As a visitor it feels like I am told what to think and feel – this is a European border street. Even if I forgot it for a second, there is another reminder. A ‘European blue’ bus stop with yellow stars, a ‘European blue’ garbage bin, a number of…
During our conversation with a German inhabitant of Nieuwstraat/Neustraße—the 84 year old Frau Meyer—we explained a little about our research, before she interrupted us by saying that the relationship between the people from Kerkrade and Herzogenrath is “super” but that at the moment they [the German inhabitants of the Nieuwstraat/Neustraße] were not allowed to cross…
