I just have to mention the word “Autobahn,” and the eyes of my male friends light up instantly. “Still no speed limit, right?” Their question sounds like a curious mix of awe and envy because Germany’s Autobahnen (motorways) are famous for their absence of speed limits.
Autobahn Fallacy # 1
“True,” I want to tell my friends, “but also a bit misleading. There is hardly a significant stretch of Autobahn that allows you to press the pedal to the metal.” But I usually just let it go. Why not let them feel the excitement of the wind in their hair. If only for a brief moment. In reality, German motorways have no posted speed limit, UNLESS…. and that one little word changes everything. There is no speed limit for cars and motorbikes UNLESS the motorway traverses an urbanized area or unless the stretch is accident-prone or under construction. And since German summers are short, construction zones are ubiquitous. There are few stretches that allow a motorist to test the car’s muscle.
Autobahn by Langsdorf
Credit: Wikipedia
Autobahn Fallacy # 2
Generally, Adolf Hitler is credited with the planning, design and construction of the German Autobahn. Another half-truth. The Nazis initially rejected the Autobahn as a “luxury road.” But after coming to power in 1933, Hitler embraced the Autobahn project as his idea. His propaganda machines called it Strassen des Fuehrers – roads of the Leader. Although about a quarter of Germany’s current motorway network was originally constructed during the Third Reich, the initial planning and design work had been done much earlier. Stufa (Studiengesellschaft fuer den Automobilstrassenbau – study group for road construction) began planning a German highway network as early as 1924, long before Hitler. Next, a private initiative (HaFraBa) designed and partially built a “car only road” from Hamburg via Frankfurt am Main to Basel in Switzerland. HaFraBa completed parts of that road in the late 1930s and early 1940’s prior to the start of World War II. And the very first stretch of today’s Autobahn was completed in 1932, also prior to Hitler’s ascent to power. It stretched between Cologne and Bonn and was inaugurated on 6 August 1932 by Konrad Adenauer, then Mayor of Cologne and later Chancellor of West Germany. http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth08.htm The stretch of Autobahn was initially known as Kraftfahrstrasse (motor vehicle road). Today, that same stretch is called Bundesautobahn (Federal motorway) 555.
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Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.
Tags: Adolf Hitler, Autobahn, HaFraBa, Konrad Adenauer, Studiengesellschaft fuer den Automobilstrassenbau
