The Village that lies in two Countries
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ย. 2024
- There is an unusual village on the German-Dutch border. Or rather: two villages? In fact, you can't really tell - because the state border runs directly along the village street. On one side the houses are Dutch, on the other German. And if you don't pay close attention, you won't even notice which country you are in. Time to take a closer look at this curiosity.
A film by Matthias Schwarzer.
--------------------------------
Did you like this video? Support my work on Patreon:
/ matthiasschwarzerenglish
Or become a channel member on TH-cam!
--------------------------------
▪️INSTAGRAM:
/ matthiasschwarzer
▪️FACEBOOK:
/ matthiasschwarzertrave...
▪️TIKTOK:
/ matthiasschwarzerenglish
▪️CONTACT:
post@matthias-schwarzer.de
--------------------------------
Intro song:
MÆT - Start Again
Music:
Epidemic sound
#netherlands #germany #border #borders #geography #eu #europe #europeanunion
Thanks for watching! Here's more you might like:
▪ Weird Border: Is this Germany or the Netherlands? th-cam.com/video/jATA_9A-fWE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=1lRGuat4Q5KHy34K
▪ Why the Netherlands have a Biking Culture: th-cam.com/video/1JUq0vFDuTU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=fraqnyDgDBW_kmtw
▪ Why there is an abandoned Ghost Town in Belgium: th-cam.com/video/UHh1nJrSTfE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=hNXA8gdfubNPVONe
As someone living and growing in Dinxperlo, thank you for making this video. In essence, for many people in Dinxperlo or Suderwick it is not "something" to think about when we go to the other side of the border. "Oh, just have an ice cream at Da Claudio or go to the Penny" is not strange at all, in fact, one of the most casual (the extent to which you can call shopping casual) things to do. Especially for someone who grew up here in the 2000s and who had never seen a real border crossing with passport/ID checks and such.
Thanks for the support 🙂
I am Dutch, but didn't know this about Dinxperlo :) Thanks for showing us
The way you began with the quirks, and went through the history drew me in, and it was such a pleasure to listen to the two old friends, Dutch and German, from the historical society. As a Brit who never wanted to leave Europe, hearing their thoughts, and those of the Austrian lady and her Dutchman, on Brexit was fascinating. An excellent video, thank you!
Very interesting! The discussions with the elder folk were particularly illuminating. Also, great choice of music.
There is another place where a German and a Dutch city are one.
these are Kerkrade (NL) and Hertzogenrath (D).
There you have the Nieuwstraat/Neustraße, also on one side the Netherlands and on the other side Germany
I became "world champion" in Kerkrade twice. (Wereld Muziek Concours). He should definitely visit there, also a great area.
There is probably many of those between NE and Germany or Belgium..
As a tourist, I ve been to the three borders point in the Vaals-Gemmenich-Valserquartier area, just a stone throw away from Aachen
Yeah, I was about to say... Kerkrade & Herzogenrath. I lived there for 38 years. I remember when the borders were still closed and my dad took me to Aldi for groceries and we had to bring passports and stuff. Times have changed for the better since the borders are open there.
The border there also has a tiny memorial to pay respects to 2 German customs officers that were shot there in 1978 courtesy of the Rote Armee Fraktion (November 1st, 1978)
The craziest thing that used to happen at the Neustrasse/Nieuwstraat were Dutch and German hooligans facing eachother when there was soccergame between both nations.
From what I understood, they even have a officebuilding built right on the center with many small firms having an office there. Border runs right through it; which helps both dutch and German mailing, because dutch firms can mail their orders from a German mailservice in the same building.
I lived by this location🇨🇦
From 1966 to 1969 I studied in Aachen and I had a room in Herzogenrath-Strass. From my room I could look into the Netherlands (Kerkrade), but I was not allowed to go there. In the middle of the street, which was the border, was a low wall. Instead of walking less than 100 meters I had to drive about 5 km east or west to the next border checkpoint, and I had to show my ID card and the green insurance document.
Lol, very interesting that the historical society guy from the Dutch side has a Dutch accent when speaking German, alltough historically these villages spoke the same Westphalian dialect of Low German.
I thought the same! I could tell he was Dutch the moment he started speaking!
You have such a pleasant accent to listen to - and I love the nerdy subjects you cover. I can actually hear the Dutch accent when one of the men is speaking German. G'day from Australia, mate ☺
Awesome, thanks for the English upload! I wanted to show this to my Dutch friend but since she can't understand German well I couldn't, now I can :)
Super recherchiert 👍 tolle Interviewpartner 👌
See also Kerkrade and several other villages along the German-Dutch borders. Same with Belgium.
Great video thanks for sharing
Border villages in Europe have gotten more and more united, while border villages in North America have gotten more and more divided.
That's very true
Both "attitudes" are born in politics and how the towns people respond to politics.
European countries, and I want to say the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium especially, have been calling for years to "unite", work together, live together, play together. (North) American politics has (especially the Trump years) been about closing the borders, "protecting them" against the neighbors. This inevitably reflects in how the people affected will look at those neighbors. Would the USA work WITH instead of against their neighbors, they would have US/Mexican towns and US/Canadian towns like Dinxperwick or Baarle Nassau/Hertog
@@mavadelo Oh please! I swear Europeans just love to sit here and act like this arrangement is due to them just being so "enlightened" and not due to outsiders having to come in and make you people stop shooting each other.
beautifull generalization
I find this sort of thing so fascinating. I come from a country that has no land borders so European borders and the history of them is so interesting to me. I can't imagine growing up in a place that has another country across the road. The cooperation between diverse countries, sharing a continent should be an inspiration to other continents.
Thank you Matthias for doing this in English, very much appreciated...
One thing I think documentaries like these always seem to leave out is the everyday practicalities, that isn't about the physical borders, but rather the technical ones. From where do you get your electricity? Your water? Is it purely tied to your address or can you be living in Germany while paying a Dutch company for your power?
Your phone? How did the old landlines work? How do you deal with having your neighbour being an international phone call away? Mobile phones pre 2017? Where everyone running around with dual sim cards? And even though your data is now included all over the EU, a call to your friends might still be an international one, if you have contracts in different countries.
And then we have internet. Guess it's the same thing as with the old landline phones, but here it comes down to IP address. Are you a german stuck with dutch Netflix? (and here it's time to talk about todays sponsor .....)
Old cellphones were a problem in border areas. You actively had to check if you weren't on a german cell network and pay higher fees, if you had a dutch cell provider. Now with roaming and all that, it works fine, but back then, you had to pay a bit more attention.
If you live at a German address you have to become customer of a German ISP and will have a German IP and a German phone number (+49).
What a delight to watch… Thank you so much for making these great videos. BR, Per (Denmark)
Super leuke film! Dit is wat Europa leuk maakt!
The world is a funny place. My elders came with the British Empire to Africa. They decided to stay. Then South Africa became a country with Afrikaans/Dutch given priority to English. We were the first ones to learn Afrikaans although we never used it as Durban was English.
When I went to University I thought they were doing away with Afrikaans. A friend of mine spent a gap year in the Netherlands & told me it was difficult. Some of our comedians & older Afrikaans movies spoke with a Dutch accent so I picked up the shift.
I moved to Johannesburg for work because it is the financial heart of Africa & one of the most Cosmopolitan cities in the Southern Hemisphere. In my time there I got to really learn about South Africa because Johannesburg for example was a city of immigrants. Gold was found on a stock farm 55km from the nearest town or settlement ie Pretoria. I later learned that the town/city of Potchefstroom was the original capital of De/Het Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek. When I decided to leave Johannesburg my first choice was Flanders or the Netherlands. I decided not to because of my complexion as some don't know better would think I am a terrorist 😂.
I opted for New Zealand where I met Dutch, German & Flemish friends. They were quite surprised by my language skills. I have to explain to them & my Kiwi friends that in my country of birth, more especially in the Afrikaans parts I am regarded as being English. That always gets a good laugh.
I just think its wonderful that we can put past bigotry etc behind us & enjoy our lives together. Its interesting to see how others envisage or see the world. Time flies, so make the best of it.
Thanks for the video. I hope to visit the EU in the next few summers as I am not built for sub-zero temperatures. 😂 Greetings from New Zealand 🇳🇿
Greetings! I've heard some people say the Kiwi accent is actually more similar to the South African English accent than Australian; would you agree?
@@andyjay729 Absolutely, another secret. Natalians have a strong bond with England & a similar sentiment of the Crown. The other, English South Africans are not so. Ironically, Natal/KZN Indians will jump off a cliff if their team lost in the English Prenier League. Crazy stuff.
Auckland is very much like Durban where I grew up.
As an American this is really fascinating to me. I know we sure could learn a lot from Europe in a lot of ways.
I always love your videos but I especially like your Baarle Hertog/Nassau and Dinxperwick episodes. They show that borders don't have to be an issue if you talk and cooperate. Something certain countries on the other side of the globe can learn something from.
Fantastic video as always, whenever I see you posted a new video it's always a treat!
Fantastic research! Thank you!!
Fascinating. Thankyou!
i am born 200m away from Denmark...in the late 60s
we locals didnt care for the border, we always went over it without any ID checks....
while the tourists standing in the jam at the border post, we went thru without to bother the border guards!
it also helped, to have speaking Danish in the Kindergarten on the German side! in the early 1970s!
How come? Was it a Danish speaking area on the German side?
Similar to Baarle Hertog and Baarle Nassau on the Belgian ‐ Netherlands bborder. The wife sleeps on one side of the bed in the Netherlands, and hubby sleeps in Belgium.
Living on this Dutch German border I can see the subtle differences even if there is no actual border left.
Cross border cooperation can lead to some weird stuff. I have seen German ambulances coming to the rescue on the Dutch side of the border and Dutch firetrucks dousing fires on the German side.
As an added bonus both side of the border still speak the same dialect.
Great content! Always surprises the topic with something new and interesting. 🔥
we have a few towns here in North America where part is in Canada and part is in the US. Broadly speaking, there isn't a problem despite very different political and societal views on either side of the town. One amusing example is a town where some houses sit on American soil, and their driveways are on Canadian soil. Generally speaking, good will conquers all.
But those towns have REALLY strict border controls, despite appearances.
This was fantastic thanks for uploading, more videos like this please
Great minidoc! ❤ I can somewhat relate by growing up in a neighbouring town, family saturdays out trips to germany at 15 mins distance. When I was young we always had to stop at border patrol, they look at you then send you through, then later removed and now an open road. Also resfreshing to see this relative longformat and highly insightfull videos. Also the remark about the dutch feeling the need to speak english because of the sea travels and the germans expecting customers to speak german was eye opening.
there's also the small town Burghausen which lies in both Germany and Austria :) You can cross a bridge and you're in the other country. I was there 2 weeks ago.
Excellent video, thank you! And yes, many of us in GB were and remain horrified, and look forward to returning to the European family
Plenty of us are very happy out of it, never to return. Here in GB it doesn't matter, we have no land border.
There are several such villages in Europe, villages that were split by history and nationalistic rivalries, and united again in the European Union that abolished the hard borders.
Wow, das war ja wieder super aufwendig. Danke.
There is another example with even a sometimes heated situation at the border: Kerkrade (NL) and Herzogenrath (DE).
I live in the Netherlands near te german border. We have a lot of similar situations like this nearby.
There is the small village of Hohenbusch that has a dutch corner in it And kerkrade/ Herzogenrath also share a street. Just a couple examples.
Buildings in some locations are shared even. Ofcourse we have also have maarstricht aachen airport...
We call our region de Euregio.
I was thinking this was going to be about Baarle in the Netherlands and Belgium
You may investigate Baarle Nassau in the south of the Netherlands. There you have pieces of Begium in theNetherlands and again dutch patches in a Belgian patch..... Interesting stuff.
Please go to South of The Netherlands where, Nederland, België and Deutschland conjunct as well in one village
I’m curious about bicycling here. I look to the Netherlands for inspiration about bicycles and street design. I saw some Dutch streets in your video but no one riding bikes.
Very interesting topic. Thanks from Costa Rica.
There's Gorlitz/Gorzelec too and the funny bit is that each side is 99% ignorant of the foreign language over the river!
This is beautiful! Thank you for making this video! This could be the perfect place for me. I've always dreamed of living in the Netherlands, but I also fell in Love with Germany when I had a chance to stay for a few months. I can't get over how friendly and humane the Germans were. I liked that very much. But, the Netherlands is my dream. So, this would be a perfect compromise 🙂
I work for a (originating) German-Dutch company in Dinxperlo, we can learn much from each other and benefit from each others pluspoints. I do remember the days of Covid that my colleagues feared the hard closure of the border. Luckily that didn't happen. Vorteil: Richtig fahren auf die Autobahn in die Richtung von Arnheim 😉
Really a great story!
Very nice video. I visited Dinxperlo several times, and liked it a lot. One thing is remarkable: all people in the video speak German (or English), not a word in Dutch. And that's something I notice every time I visit the border region between the Netherlands and Germany. In the Netherlands border region everybody speaks Dutch and German, on the German side of the border it's German only.
I grew up close to the border and at the time (60s/70s) there were 2 Dutch tv channels and 3 German ones and German tv was on more as well, crucially on Sunday afternoons. So I learned German before I ever got it in high school, we all did. Present generations are not usually as good at German.
While there may be a larger chunk of Germans who do not speak Dutch there are still plenty Germans that do. I live near the Dutch German border as well and I practiced sports there for many years, many of the people there who attended Gymnasium have or had Dutch in their curriculum.
The interview is in German. Probably because Matthias Schwarzer does not understand Dutch and could not talk in or subtitle it.
Just as well , right hand traffic both countries 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️👍👍👍
If some of those politicians in both Germany and the Netherlands did not learn the lesson from brexit (severe economic consequences for U.K. that just get worse every year) than I am sorry for them.
Surprising considering the USA's very strong territorial sense, there are a few places like this on the US-Canadian border between the US state of Vermont and the Canadian province of Quebec, or rather, there were until 9/11. Since then things have been tightened up quite a bit. But at least at one time, one town had a library that was basically shared between the two countries, albeit with separate exits for each country.
the benelux and schengen country borders are surprisingly easy going here in europe :D
the border customs stations are quite often unmanned/just run a drive-through policy, and let you drive striaght though over the highways too
but they do random samplings from time to time, and play a bit harder around certain times they know shit is going down
like a lot fo the fireworks that are illegal here in the nehterlands, are perfectly legal in belgium,
here in the netherlands we have a strict policy where it's only legal to sell fireworks 2 or 3 years in the year, the last ones of the year.... in germany and belgium they sell them all year round
so people smuggle them over the border, but customs knows that too, so around those december times they'll do a bit more checking for dutch people coming back from belgium to the netherlands, more so than germany, because the fireworks in belgium is allowed to be more potent so to speak, so that's where the real freaks went,
the internet made it a bit less prominent though
in NL you can get yourself an air rifle that could bring down a fucking deer though, which would be illegal in germany and belgium, they have a 7.5 or 15 joules limit to air rifles,
sometimes 24.
somehow it's perfectly legal here to get gas charged air guns that go over 500 joules and run 9mm or even 50 cal air gun "pellets"
but most people in europe aren't silly enough to try to take their rifles over the border, you don't even let most people know you have them, you know you're asking for shit lol
Fascinating!
I'm surprised that I didn't know about this town, given that I live really close to it on the Dutch side.
It's really cool to hear the stories from the residents about their experiences with hard borders cutting up their town in the past, and how they feel about political rhetoric that wants to bring back those divisions.
Very interesting in the east of the country. It is possible that you have not yet been to Baarle Nassau or Baarle Hertog. A small town in the south of the Netherlands. With also the things that belong there.
Heel interessant in het oosten van het land. Het kan zijn dat je nog niet in Baarle Nassau of Baarle Hertog bent geweest. Een klein plaatsje in het zuiden van Nederland. Met ook de dingen die daar bij horen.
There is a nice dialect song from Hans Keuper, "dinxper". It is about the people of Dinxperlo and Suderwick.
reminds me a bit of the towns of Bellaghy/Charlestown on the Sligo/Mayo border ... but I suspect the Dutch/Germans are friendlier ;)
German is very important language , but however we from " Ost (mittle) Europa very much appreciate this in English. English is still a language of unification of Europe and especially considering fact that is officially spoken in USA, Canada, Malta, Ireland, United Kingdom, Malaysia, India, Australia, Philippines, Singapore, New Zealand, Caribbean islands , Pakistan, and most of African countries, make sense to have it as common language in Europe
Aalten is a boring place but you can also briefly mention that Angus Young from AC/DC has lived there with his Dutch wife for 40 years.
What about Herzogenrath and Kerkrade? I used to live there and I think it is nearly the same situation. Can you do a video about that please?
I lived in Kranenburg (Germany) for a year. It was right on the Dutch border. Some houses had garden in the Netherlands.
Great work. Why only 12K subscribers?!??
Nice.
But not overly exceptional in Europe.
I lived for a while at the German/Swiss border, villages (same name) on both sides of Rhine river that is the border.
Basel area with the often not visible border to Germany and to France. Even well before Schengen agreement.
Baarle is just a bit stranger village on the map.
Europapa avant la lettre
How typical the Dutchie is talking German. The other way around is very rare or nearly non existent.
👋🏼 Small struggling Travel Channel here. I love your content, thanks for this great video! You inspire me to keep grinding my channel, maby one day I’ll grow as big as you 🥲
Germany has quite strict laws on shops opening on Sunday maybe for religious reasons although the rules seem to apply equally to Protestant and Catholic parts of the country.I think that some little shops can open especially in rail stations so you can still buy food and whatnot.
If it’s all one village, what language do they all speak to communicate with each other?
As mentioned in the video the older generation still communicates in Plattdeutsch, I wouldn't be surprised most Dutch speak German anyways, in the Dutch school system schools have to offer either German or French (as an elective, English is mandatory) most people will opt for German -- at least they did when I went to school in 1884 ;) -- since it is easier to pick up as both are West-Germanic in origin.
this also happens in the south! kerkrade and herzogenrath!
Please try the German--Polish version Guben / Gubin
Check upp Cieszyn, one side is in Poland second one in Czech😎
This is just as "wierd" and bit similar to the city of Baarle Hertog. Here the border crosses the town between the Netherlands and Belgium...
Go to baarle-nassau, thats even more crazy 😂😂
I m fron Sint Jacobslaan Nijmegen 4 kms from Germany
I've watched the German version of the video despite not understanding much German xD
In the nordic countries you could cross the border and travel without passport from 1952. From 1954 you could even settle in the other countries without any formalities, and after living there for three months you could even vote in local elections.
Leuk
Why do I watch this when I already watched the German version a few days ago?
Super Clip 😂
How about Barlem/Barlaam Belhium/the Netherlands.
Verdammt, ich habe ein falsches Video gesehen! Ich habe nicht gewisst, dass ein Video auf English ist auch verfügbar (ich bin nicht aus Deutschland). 😀
The german version came out first, the english second..
Lol, there r many! Live in landgraaf…. Its split in germany too
It makes me wonder if the speak closely related dialects of Low German and Dutch or even if they speak the same dialect.
From what I gathered from the video is that the older generation shares Platt.
Kerkerade
Meanwhile India is building electrified border fences
There are many villages like this all across europe.
I guess the door-zone cycle lanes are on the German side
Which languages do the local people speak. Do they speak speak both Dutch and German, or do they speak some mix of the two?
They most likely used to speak the same language. A low west germanic dialect which was considered a dialect of Dutch on one side, and a dialect of (Low) German on the other side.
Nowadays, most residents on the german side probably speak High German.
Interestingly, the dialects in both sides are quite similar, if not the same. And most people in the Netherlands who live close to the German border, speak German at least a little.
@@_JoyceArt maybe it's me but in the interviews they all seemed to be speaking german.
@@richardtalbot8769 they are speaking German in the video, but the question was about local people, and what they speak.
What a Great example of integration ... I say this coming from "Little England"
Why is the dutch guy saying und instead of en
"Holland is known for its excellent care for the elderly" ... Excuse me??
Toont maar weer aan hoe absurd het begrip grens eigenlijk is.
Visit Kerkrade and Herzogenrath
There are actually many of such villages on the Dutch-German and Dutch-Belgian borders. And then, there's the insanity that is Baarle.
I had to chuckle about the item on smuggling. Yes, that happened a lot, everywhere.
Regarding German infrastructure, I don't get it. It's not the reunification: former communist countries have better (digital) infrastructure than Germany. There's something really, really wrong there. The Dutch finished a high-capacity freight-only railway in 2007. But its capacity is limited, because the Germans need to build a third track. They should be starting this year: 17 years later! And even the Autobahn: for as long as I can remember - and this goed back to the 1970s - there's always a Baustelle or other. You cannot drive any reasonable distance in Germany without running into some sort of maintenance.
One thing, though: the country is called the Netherlands! I'm from the Netherlands, not from 'Holland'. Holland is a strange land with rude, loud people.
Without going into a political debate in TH-cam comments: when the borders were still there, it was a major pain in the arse. Between the Netherlands and Belgium was OK, but to Germany... oh boy. Long delays, they check your papers, open the boot please, what's inside the suitcase... never-ending.
And let's not even talk about cross-border purchases. Although I'm Dutch, I live in Malta these days. If I want to order something online, I don't even bother trying to order something from the Netherlands, because they almost never ship abroad. Compare that to Germany, where they happily ship all over Europe. For some reason, the Dutch online retailers seem unaware that there's a market of hundreds of millions of potential customers.
Since I moved to Malta in 2000/2001, it wasn't an EU member state yet. So everything that I bought abroad - even though it was a pain, 20 years ago - got import duties and VAT. It's a hassle for retailers as well. Therefore, I was _very_ happy when Malta joined in 2004. It has also had a massive impact on the economy. These days, it's not really that different from Western Europe in many aspects. Except that it has better internet and mobile telephony than Germany, and better weather. 🙂
Germany has all those issues with electronic infrastructure and sluggish construction, but it's the Netherlands that has issues with shipping abroad? Interesting how each country seems to have its Achilles heels.
Not everybody makes a big deal about the word "Holland", i live in Australia, and if i mention that i need to send a package to the Netherlands I get blank looks, so I say Holland instead, and they know straight away😂
"Holland is a strange land with rude, loud people."
Which in turn is a rude, stigmatising generalisation.
Similar to Danish- German border.
Do they communicate with each other in German or Dutch? Or a third language such as English?
I luv your video's Matthias. You seem to missed the part how the Dutch hunted the German Jews trying to cross the boarder before May 1940. Even killing them or imprisoning them - returning them to Germany to certain death. The same thing happened in Kerkrade, a place which has a very similar boarder.
We definitely need to work towards free movement of people in Europe.
And some countries with a high population density benefits more then others from a EU membership.
But even with countries that probably shouldn't be members we should have cooperation.
Germany got it right with closing on Sunday.
Yeah, that’s why Germans are flocking to the Netherlands on their free sundays
24:58
It's not about identity.
The issue is that you can never have a fair democracy that both ensures that you have representation of all the various ways to live in Europe and sll the issued faced by the inhabitants and one that's fair towards the more urban areas all while also having a functional democracy...
I'm personally in favour of a confederate approach to running Europe, instead of a federal or unified approach.
Cooperation is essentially, but people need to have the final say about their own lives.
Not politicans who has never been in the location in question.