From a transnational and everyday historical perspective, it describes how people lived and suffered before, during, and after the "Great War" around the quadripoint of Aachen, Vaals, Gemmenich, and Moresnet. It concerns the fate of "neutrals" from Moresnet, the South Limburgers who remained with the Netherlands in 1830/31, the citizens of Aachen, Eupen, and the Eifel region, who were made Prussians without their consent in 1815, and the Low German and French-speaking Belgian border population around Verviers. Before 1914, borders played virtually no role in the minds and actual practices of the local people. Work was sought wherever there was something to be done. The border was also frequently crossed for pilgrimages, celebrations, weddings, living, shopping, and not least for lucrative smuggling. The area was, in a sense, mini-globalized.