Imagine a super highway designed for speed. Thousands of miles of roadway unhindered by limits of any kind. Where drivers can go as fast as their Porsche’s will carry them. The Autobahn – a marvel of the Road Gods.

Welcome to the autobahn. The only freeway in the world where 212 a speed the police helicopters cant match is perfectly legal. This is the ultimate driver’s fantasy land, not just for professionals but for anyone with a driving license. A kind of bizarre world where all the basics are in reverse. It is actually illegal to drive too slow on the autobahn, but there are no limits at all for thousands of miles of autobahn on how fast you can go.

The German Autobahn has taken on an almost legendary mystique. The reality is a little different than the legend. The myth of no speed limits is countered by the fact that Tempolimits are a fact of life on most of Germany’s highways, and traffic jams are common. Signs suggesting a recommended speed limit of 130 km/h (80 mph) are posted along most of the autobahn, while urban sections and a few dangerous stretches sometimes have posted speed limits as “low” as 100 km/h (62 mph). The fact is that Germany’s autobahn system is an extensive network of limited-access freeways that can usually provide a driver with a speedy route from city to city.

Introduction

The Autobahn is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is Bundesautobahn, which translates as “federal motorway”. The literal meaning of the word is “Federal Auto(mobile) Track”.

German autobahns have no federally mandated speed limit for some classes of vehicles. However limits are posted (and enforced) in areas that are urbanized, substandard, accident-prone, or under construction. On speed-unrestricted stretches, an advisory speed limit (Richtgeschwindigkeit) of 130 kmph (81 mph) applies. While going faster is not illegal as such in the absence of a speed limit, it can cause an increased liability in the case of an accident; courts have ruled that an “ideal driver” who is exempt from absolute liability for “inevitable” tort under the law would not exceed the advisory speed limit – Richtgeschwindigkeit.

A 2008 estimate reported that 52% of the autobahn network had only the advisory speed limit, 15% had temporary speed limits due to weather or traffic conditions, and 33% had permanent speed limits. Measurements from the German State of Brandenburg in 2006 showed average speeds of 142 km/h (88 mph) on a 6-lane section of autobahn in free-flowing conditions.

Germany’s autobahn network has a total length of about 12,993 km (8,073 mi) in 2016, which ranks it among the most dense and longest controlled-access systems in the world. Longer similar systems can be found in the United States (77,017 km (47,856 mi)) and in China (123,000 km (76,000 mi)).

The Safety Net

One might feel while zooming down the scenic bends of the autobahn that the insane speeds and lack of enforced speed limits is dangerous and Germany’s solution to population control, not so. In exchange to fly autobahn drivers have to sacrifice certain freedoms. In Germany there is permission for higher speeds but more rigid controls on lane discipline. Here in India, one can meander all over all the lanes, wherever you want to go provided, you drive within the posted limits. In Germany they have a law called Rechtsfahrgebot or Drive Right, you can only drive in the right hand lane and pass in the left, and everybody rigidly follows this. The slower traffic is always to the right and there is never a left lane bandit or slowpoke sitting in the left lane blocking traffic.

Autobahn drivers don’t just drive right, they drive with a distinctive concentration and focus, one that a 100 miles an hour has a way of quickly inducing. There is no multitasking on the autobahn, no talking on cellphone, no eating on the run. German companies never understood why we needed cup holders because driving is an activity in itself one takes pride in, and has to put full concentration to. It is not something you do while slurping on a coke.

Another factor that makes the autobahn safe in any speed is the road itself. The autobahn is more than twice as thick as a normal expressway. 27 inches of asphalt and concrete which prevents cracking and maintenance is extraordinary. When a crack does appear the entire section of the road is replaced quickly, which is why maintenance slowdowns are a frequent occurrence. As a rule the autobahn is incredibly smooth, one can’t have potholes and undulations on a surface meant for vehicular traffic speeds upwards of the 100 miles an hour. The law mandates that the average gradient should not exceed 4% earlier it was originally planned for 7% but them German engineers found it too steep. Throw in a healthy dollop of slight bends and curves cutting across a beautiful countryside and the pristine beauty of the Rhine landscape, and you have a scenic road which is engineered for speed. In fact a major reason for fatalities on the U.S. interstate is due to its long straight stretches, Germans quickly found that long stretches tend to induce fatigue and boredom in drivers and induces sleep and tiredness quickly including loss of concentration, caution and spatial knowledge. Thus, those scenic curves which puts a ballerina to shame are also serving a crucial purpose in the safety net of the vaunted autobahn. Structural features also make a difference on the autobahn, especially the double sided crash guard rails that separate opposing lines of traffic, preventing head on collisions.

There is a human element in the safety net too. The cultural attitude in Germany is also honed towards making a drive on the autobahn as safe as possible. No garbage cans on the street. Cars must regularly be checked every two years by either the TÜV or the Dekra. Cars which do not pass may not be driven on the road. Only vehicles with a top speed of 60 miles an hour or more are permitted entrance to the autobahn. It is much harder to get a driver’s license in Germany (Fahrschule). Individual driver training is compulsory and the license itself which you have to be 18 to get, costs between $ 1500 – $ 2000. The training is given by certified driving instructors inside special cars which allow the instructor to brake the car if he/she sees dangerous behavior.

• You need to make a visual test which shows that you can see clearly and distinctively even at night
• You need to make a first aid course (not if you already made one or if you are a paramedic)
• The theoretical course are at least 14 hours. The final test consists of choosing 30 questions, each correct answer give a point, 20 points means a pass. Trying to learn the questions by heart is senseless because there are currently 522 questions for the basic stuff, the extended stuff has 993 questions.
• Every trainee must absolve Sonderfahrten (special trips) which are at least 1 night trip (3 hours), 1 overland trip (4 hours) and 1 autobahn (5 hours).
• The practical test itself is one official tester together with your driving instructor. The car is now unmarked. As long as no instructions are given you are driving straight. The tester may not send you into a wrong direction, but that is all. If the straight road is forbidden (one-way in wrong direction) and you try to drive, fail. If you approach a railway without looking out, fail.
• Driving trucks is even harder, there are more restrictions and more tests.

Verkehrsfunk is continuous radio traffic every 30 min. or so which warns of traffic congestion, people or game on the autobahn, Geisterfahrer (wrong-way driver) and so on. Flensburg point system and the MPU also induces a safe driving behavior in drivers. Every recorded traffic violation not only causes problems every time (fine, loss of license or even trial), the violations gain you points and once a threshold is reached, you must go to the infamous MPU (idiot test). This means a doctor examines your health and a psychologist talks with you and tries to find out if you have insight in your behavior and if your behavior will remain stable in a positive way. Many people do not pass this test, and their license is forfeit.

A key feature of the autobahn safety net is of-course the legendary quality and engineering of German cars. Cars since the 1930s are designed with the autobahn in mind, cars that can go incredibly fast but that are also beautifully maneuverable at extreme speeds. Cars that are engineered and designed to save lives at any speed.

History

The autobahn is an adventure cut across the scenic German landscape, which has its roots in the deadliest hour of the German history. The autobahn is one of the most beautifully groomed highways in the world, it looks as if it was built yesterday. A state of the art road for state of the art cars. In reality though, the autobahn is the oldest national freeway system in the world. Its roots go back to Adolf Hitler and the dream of the Third Reich. In fact untill the end of World War 2, the autobahn’s official name was “Die Straben Adolf Hitlers” or Adolf Hitler’s Road.

An Idea …

The idea for the construction of the autobahn was first conceived in the mid-1920s during the days of the Weimar Republic, but the construction was slow, and most projected sections did not progress much beyond the planning stage due to economic problems and a lack of political support. One project was the private initiative HaFraBa which planned a “car only road” crossing Germany from Hamburg in the north via central Frankfurt am Main to Basel in Switzerland. Parts of the HaFraBa were completed in the late 1930s and early 1940s, but construction eventually was halted by World War II. The first public road of this kind was completed in 1932 between Cologne and Bonn and opened by Konrad Adenauer (Lord Mayor of Cologne and future Chancellor of West Germany) on 6 August 1932.Today, that road is the Bundesautobahn 555.This road was not yet called Autobahn and lacked a center median like modern motorways, but instead was termed a Kraftfahrstraße (“motor vehicle road”) with two lanes each direction without intersections, pedestrians, bicycles, or animal-powered transportation.

Groomed …

At first the National Socialist party attacked the autobahn as an elitist extravagance that will only benefit the tiny percentage of Germans who owned cars. But that changed when Hitler came to power and grasped its political social and propagandist and imperial value. The autobahns as the roads were for the Roman empire, represented the skeleton for this new great third Reich. . Built between 1933 and 1942 the autobahn was the largest and most triumphantly publicized public works project of the Nazi regime. It put hundreds of, thousands of, people to work, made Blitzkrieg military movements possible and served as a symbol of the new Germany; a Germany that could get things done. Groundbreaking for the Reich’s autobahn took place in September 23, 1933 just south of Frankfurt.

Idealized …

Adolf Hitler enthusiastically embraced an ambitious autobahn construction project, appointing Fritz Todt, the Inspector General of German Road Construction, to lead it. By 1936, 130,000 workers were directly employed in construction, as well as an additional 270,000 in the supply chain for construction equipment, steel, concrete, signage, maintenance equipment, etc. In rural areas, new camps to house the workers were built near construction sites. The job creation program aspect was not especially important because full employment was almost reached by 1936. The autobahns were not primarily intended as major infrastructure improvement of special value to the military as often stated. Their military value was limited as all major military transports in Germany were done by train to save fuel. The propaganda ministry turned the construction of the autobahns into a major media event that attracted international attention.

The autobahns formed the first limited-access, high-speed road network in the world, with the first section from Frankfurt am Main to Darmstadt opening in 1935. This straight section was used for high speed record attempts by the Grand Prix racing teams of Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union until a fatal accident involving popular German race driver Bernd Rosemeyer in early 1938. The world record of 432 km/h (268 mph) set by Rudolf Caracciola on this stretch just prior to the accident remains one of the highest speeds ever achieved on a public motorway. A similar intent in the 1930s existed for a ten kilometer stretch of what is today Bundesautobahn 9 just south of Dessau — called the Dessauer Rennstrecke — had bridges with no piers, meant for land speed record cars like the Mercedes-Benz T80 to have made a record attempt in January 1940, abandoned due to the outbreak of World War II in Europe four months earlier.

Struggle for existence…

During World War II, the median strips of some autobahns were paved over to allow their conversion into auxiliary airstrips. Aircraft were either stashed in numerous tunnels or camouflaged in nearby woods. However, for the most part during the war, the autobahns were not militarily significant. Motor vehicles, such as trucks, could not carry goods or troops as quickly or in as much bulk and in the same numbers as trains could, and the autobahns could not be used by tanks as their weight and caterpillar tracks damaged the road surface. The general shortage of petrol in Germany during much of the war, as well as the low number of trucks and motor vehicles needed for direct support of military operations, further decreased the autobahn’s significance. As a result, most military and economic freight was carried by rail. After the war, numerous sections of the autobahns were in bad shape, severely damaged by heavy Allied bombing and military demolition. Furthermore, thousands of kilometers of autobahns remained unfinished, their construction brought to a halt by 1943 due to the increasing demands of the war effort.

Reborn from the ashes …

In West Germany (FRG), most existing autobahns were repaired soon after the war. During the 1950s, the West German government restarted the construction program. It invested in new sections and in improvements to older ones. Finishing the incomplete sections took longer, with some stretches opened to traffic by the 1980s. Some sections cut by the Iron Curtain in 1945 were only completed after German reunification in 1990. Others were never completed, as more advantageous routes were found. Some of these incomplete sections to this very day stretch across the landscape forming a unique type of modern ruin, often easily visible on satellite photographs.

The autobahns of East Germany (GDR) were neglected in comparison to those in West Germany after 1945. East German autobahns were used primarily for GDR military traffic and for state-owned farming or manufacturing vehicles. The speed limit on the GDR autobahns was 100 km/h; however, lower speed limits were frequently encountered due to poor or quickly changing road conditions. The speed limits on the GDR autobahns were rigorously enforced by the Volkspolizei, whose patrol cars were frequently found hiding under camouflage tarpaulins waiting for speeders.

Today’s German autobahn system stretches 12,993 km (8,073 miles, 2016 data) across most parts of Germany. From 2009 Germany has embarked on a massive widening and rehabilitation project, expanding the lane count of many of its major arterial routes, such as the A5 in the southwest and A8 going east-west. Most sections of Germany’s autobahns are modern, containing two or three, sometimes four lanes in addition to an emergency lane (hard shoulder). A few other sections remain in an old state, with two lanes, no emergency lane, and short slip-roads and ramps.

Milestones

• 1913 – The earlist motorway is put into construction – the 12 mile “AVUS”
• 1920 – Economic and political hardships stall development
• 1929 – First auto-only road opens between Dusseldorf and Opladen
• 1932 – Route between Cologne and Bonn is opened – speed limit of 120 kmph
• 1934 – Hitler encourages the Autobahn project
• 1939 – The autobahn has expanded another 2985 KM. Restricted to 80 kmph in an effort to conserve gasoline
• 1952 – All national speed limits abolished. Construction on new sections resumes, existing roads are repaired
• 1990 – Reaches 8800 KM as the Eastern and Western Autobahns join after German reunification

What you think you know

Are there really no speed limits?

• While many stretches of the motorway have no legal limit, around 60% of the Autobahn has signs recommending a top speed of 130 kmph
• Near cities, junctions or in areas under construction speeds are reduced between 90 – 120 kmph
• Truck and lorry drivers are restricted to a speed limit of 90 kmph
• Rules on reckless driving are strictly enforced with regular police patrols

How safe is the Autobahn?

• It is commonly thought that the Autobahn is no more dangerous than any other motorway
• 2.7 fatalities / billion KM traveled. In US the number is 4.5.
• Less than 10% of deadly collisions in Germany occur on the Autobahn. Most happen on country roads and in inner cities
• Roads are impeccably well maintained and are some of the smoothest in the world
• Maintenance costs are € 825,000 / mile annually, almost double that spent in the US
• Drivers have a better road knowledge and have lessons on the Autobahn before taking tests
• If you are involved in an accident whilst travelling over the advisory limit, you may be held responsible even if you are not at fault

Where is it possible to drive faster for longest?

A24 – The Hamburg to Berlin Route

Total Length – 237 KM

Length without speed limit – 150 KM

Travelling at the recommended 130 KMPH – 1 hour 9 minutes