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The first autobahn in Austria was the West Autobahn from Wals near Salzburg to Vienna. Building started by command of Adolf Hitler shortly after the Anschluss in 1938. It extended the Reichsautobahn 26 from Munich (the present-day A 8 ), however only 16.8 km (10.4 mi) including the branch-off of the planned Tauern Autobahn was opened to the public on 13 September 1941. [ 27 ]
- The Early Autobahn
- The Nazi Autobahn
- Hitler Embraces Highway Construction.
- The People’s Car
- Construction Lags
- After The War
The idea of a high-speed roadway was oxymoronic in the 1920s. While more people could afford cars, most averaged about 20 mph and topped out at around 30. Speed significantly increased once the engine technology developed by the armaments industry spread after World War II. It seems strange that what we now know as the Autobahn got started long bef...
Six months after the Bonn-Cologne highway opened, the Nazis took over the German government and placed future road building in doubt. Initially, the Nazis opposed building roads as a sop to the rich. Most workers could not afford cars, let alone ones traveling at anything resembling speed. In the 1920s, cars symbolized the class divide in Germany, ...
Hitler was suddenly present at groundbreaking ceremonies for new highways across the country. He associated his regime closely with this kind of road construction for more than domestic support reasons. The Autobahn was a technological marvel. No country had ever constructed anything like it (mainly because there was little need to, given the capab...
The missing piece came in the latter half of the decade. The “customers” for the Autobahn were largely seen as the “rich” and not the common “volk” (folk). Only the rich could afford the cars that could take advantage of the new high-speed roadways. The solution to this problem camein the form of a vehicle designed for everyone, a Volkswagen or “Pe...
Even before the country went to war, construction on the Autobahn laggedbehind plans. This should come as no surprise, as the regime drained resources and labor from the project to support Germany’s rearmament. The stated goal at the outset was for the Autobahn project to create at least 600,000 jobs. In reality, only 120,000 people were constructi...
After the war, despite considerable damage to the system, the new West German and East German states had access to the bones of an advanced road system. The West Germans also inherited Volkswagen. The “Beetle” became the ubiquitous small car of the postwar world and a centerpiece of the West German economic miracle. The Autobahn system impressed Ge...
Jul 3, 2020 · The autobahn. Germany. ... In Germany, construction on the first controlled-access highway began in 1913, though World War I delayed its opening until 1921. ... with a Cologne-Bonn road opened in ...
Jun 8, 2010 · On August 6, 1932, the first German automobile road was opened between Cologne and Bonn. The road was strictly for the use of cars and motorcycles, it had no cross streets and slower vehicles like horse-drawn carts were banned from using it. While not an "autobahn" per se, it was the seed of what would become the nation's highway system.
The Autobahn’s Origin Story. The Autobahn was developed as a first in world history, as in the first “access controlled” highway, which means that all access to the highway is controlled, which is a necessity since the Autobahn has no speed limits. If you could imagine a vehicle entering a highway, trying to gain speed, while vehicles ...
- Stefan Kristensen
expressway. Autobahn, high-speed, limited-access highway, the basis of the first modern national expressway system. Planned in Germany in the early 1930s, the Autobahnen were extended to a national highway network (Reichsautobahnen) of 2,108 km (1,310 miles) by 1942. West Germany embarked on an ambitious reconstruction of the system after World ...
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The history of the Autobahn is a testament to Germany’s resilience and innovation. From its early beginnings to its current status as a marvel of engineering, the Autobahn has evolved alongside the nation, reflecting changes in technology, politics, and society. Understanding its history allows us to appreciate not just the road under our ...
