Autobahn draws its pension

The German motorway is 70 years old this year

By PH Staff / Thursday, 19 May 2005 / Loading comments

A4 bridge over the Rhine near Köln-Rodenkirchen in 1995

^{Image courtesy of www.autobahn-online.de}

Together with a fascinating display of photos of German autobahns, the motorway-obsessed site autobahn-online.de (link below) reminds us that the Autobahn is due to draw its pension: it's 70 years old this year.

The only country in the world without a speed limit on some of its public roads, Germany pioneered the motorway. The concept was born back in the 1920s -- ten or more years before the National Socialists came to power, exploding the myth that the idea was Hitler's.

In the 1920s, a number of industrial organisations wanted for obvious reasons to get Germans off their horses and into cars. Since cars would need long, straight stretches of road to allow them to struggle up to their top speed without the risk of running over children or horses 'HAFRABA' (the Planning Association for the Motorway linking the Hanseatic Towns, Frankfurt and Basle) was born in November 1926.

But although a few motorways were built -- slowly -- before the Nazi regime's arrival in 1933, building was hugely accelerated in the mid-1930s, employing over 100,000 workers in their construction.

They provided employment in poor economic circumstances and the improved infrastructure that was needed for economic recovery. But their biggest success was in the propaganda war, helping bolster central rule and Nazi culture through architecture.

The roads formed the first limited-access, high-speed road network in the world. The first section opened in 1935, running from Frankfurt-am-Main to Darmstadt, and the straight section was used for high speed record attempts by Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union Grand Prix racing teams until the fatal accident of popular race driver Bernd Rosemeyer in early 1938.

It was the start of something big. Construction continued under the Nazis until 1942, when the effort was diverted into war production. The network was in poor shape due to Allied bombing by 1945 and, in the 1950s, a reconstruction programme invested in new sections and improvements.

Today there are some 12,000km of motorways in Germany, about half of them still unrestricted. Most of the unrestricted sections are in the south where, curiously, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes and BMW are based.

However, the country's Green party is campaigning for a speed limit of 100kph (62mph) to be imposed and any stretches already, sadly, have a limit of 130kph (81mph).