Divided in the time of a pandemic: Coronavirus separates lovers, friends at Swiss-German border fences

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.

Let's take a look: 

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.

Lovers, brothers and sisters, parents and their children, and old friends gather here and press themselves against the chain links in the spring sunshine, just close enough to say "I love you", too far apart to touch.

For weeks, they have telephoned or spoken over FaceTime. But they believe fiber optic is not a substitute for flesh and blood and people need to meet in person.

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.

Currently, those Swiss and Germans with cross-border jobs can go back and forth. For nearly everybody else, it's forbidden.

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.