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First Motorway
There is already a page dealing with the possibility of speed-limits on German motorways. This article however, is all about the origin of the motorways, with which Adolf Hitler is falsly
credited. Apart from a privately financed race-track in Berlin (the AVUS, used from 1921 until 1998), the motorway (A 555) Cologne-Bonn is deemed to be the first German motorway. The term 'Autobahn' came into
being roughly around the time of it's completion. All in all, the construction took just under three years.
| 1930: Only 10% of the transport was by road |
It was planned as a 'motor-vehicle-road', not necessarily for high speed driving, but to be able to maintain a good average speed, originally of only approx. 60 km/h, but without any obstacles. Neither horse and cart,
nor crossing traffic or gravel roads interfere with a free passage. While the villages (one car per 250 people) further from the large arterial roads, seldom even got to see a car, the small towns along the Rhine were
overloaded with traffic. Danger, stench and also the noise from the partially still solid-rubber tyres was making life difficult there.
1926: The society for the building of motorways
Ha
nsestädte-Frankfurt-Basel |
Actually, a gigantic long-distance road system was envisaged, however, the worldwide recession, beginning with the stock market collapse in 1929, put a stop to the governments plans. Thus the building of the
relatively short route of 20 kilometres remained rather a job creation scheme. The work was done almost without any help from machines. Only a small track for steam locomotives and wagons, which carried away
the debris, which had been broken down with pick and shovel. Many hands were necessary for the heavy work.
Finally, on the 6th of August 1932 the motorway was inaugurated. Unmotorised vehicles and motorcycles were not permitted to use it. Konrad Adenauer, the lord-mayor of Cologne, and later the first federal chancellor,
was present at the inauguration. He had used a great deal of influence to have the partial fulfilment of the plan carried out in his home region.
To speak of long, sweeping curves like there are on the Autobahns of today would be inaccurate in the case of the stretch between Cologne and Bonn. It was almost dead-straight. Also, it wasn't very difficult to keep
such a short stretch of road free of junctions or crossings. There was just one bridge with a slip-way (figure 2 above) near Wesseling. Nonetheless, it became a challenge for some fast journeys. At that time, e.g., the
crankshaft bearings were not yet accustomed to high cruising speeds. On the A 555 there was still a high risk of accidents, and it remained that way until it received a guard-railing and still a much later, a center strip
separating the two directions.
After the assumption of power, the National Socialists had no problems procuring finance, e.g., from, among others, the German trade union funds. They pushed the autobahn construction in a previously unknown
manner. Also the 'acquisition of land' was now simpler, those who were unwilling to give up their land were expropriated. Protests, like those made by the vegetable farmers during the building of the A 555, were no
longer heard. Up to the beginning of the war another approx. 3000 kilometres of motorway were created, all of this of course, with as much propaganda as possible, in fact, even for the completion of partial sections.
Cologne-Oberhausen was the next project. Here, difficult sections had also to be cleared with the help of explosives. The amount of hard, manual labour remained. The workers were colonised into imperial motorway
camps and officially obliged to do the work. The Germans dreamed about the highway and the future KdF (power through joy) vehicle (Volkswagen) for which however, they would still have to still wait a long time.
| 1936: The first 1.000 kilometers ... |
The first filling stations and motorway service areas with overnight-staying possibility were developed, e.g., the complex existing still today on the A 3 in Siegburg. Admittedly, the buildings have not survived. The war
instigated by the Nazis had destroyed a great deal. Also the Cologne-Rodenkirchen motorway bridge, once the highest suspension bridge in Europe. During the war, the perhaps, actually planned use of course,
came into effect, the armed forces could be transported and the motorway could be used as a substitute for bomb-damaged airfields.
The most important planning document:
The federal transport routing plan |
After the war, the allies pushed the rebuilding of Germany. A prominent date was the year 1956 with the inauguration of the Frankfurt Interchange. The partial financing through the oil-tax further helped the further
extension. The reunion of the two Germanies meant, once again, an enormous amount of effort. Today there are almost 13.000 km of motorways which can be used, indeed some of them have not been financed in
advance by the state. 10/12
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