Introduction.

With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, mass production became the key to the economy. Germany has considerable assets, a skilled labour force, and a good education system, and we’re catching up to Britain and the USA in industrialization. Germany by the 1900s was producing 900 cars/motorised vehicles per year. Though the production rates in the motor vehicle industry ascended, the condition of the road networks was tragic. Often, cars travelled in long clouds of dust. At times, water splashes on the pavement were maintained to forcefully slow down the motorists.

With the growing numbers of vehicles and no proper roadways, cars could never be driven at consistent speed. Factors affecting this was low visibility and uneven roads.

First Motorway introduced in Germany

The idea of having a permanent paved path where cars could travel without compromising on visibility and achieving the speed they want, led to the creation of Avus, using bricks and concrete. (Fig. 1) It was the first road that was away from its time situated in Berlin. The motorway, constructed as a race track. It was also used as a tollway for the traffic from Berlin to Wannsee and Potsdam on the weekdays. Avus construction was started in 1912 but couldn’t be completed before 1921 due to the first world war. The race track consisted of two parallel paths of approximately 9 km length. The motorway was special in a way that it had no intersections and was kept away from sudden super curves, it had only four turns. (Fig. 2) With concrete pavements, it became of essential value for construction of motorways later. The track served a dual purpose of a racing track and a freeway.

With Avus, new guidelines came into the motorways, central reserve to be provided of 3 meters wide and 7-meter carriageway comprising two lanes of 3.5 meters each. The blueprint for many projects was proposed to the German government but prejudice and political atmosphere restricted the finance that had to be invested in it. The early 1930s brought many changes, “Reichsautobahnen” (National Motorway) was founded for building and operating an efficient road network. (Fig. 3) Fritz Todt was appointed as ‘General inspector of roads and road management’. He was responsible for determining the location and designing the motor vehicle roads; he also had a decisive power over all interests affected by planning.

The ideology of Avus implemented in Autobahn

Fritz Todt was the in-charge of German Autobahn. Koester being a part of the project from start wrote that “The road engineers entire professional skills are to adopted in the motorway over so long a distance to extreme changes in landscape and terrain, and to create, through the art of routing, the preconditions for an economic operations and free flow of the ever-increasing volume of traffic. ” Hitler saw it as a tool to regain Military power. Introduction of Autobahn led to cover a large part of Germany, hence providing connectivity to the public through an efficient and fast network. (Fig. 4)

Avus contributed to one of the ideas for the Autobahn, construction of the first public road helped in shaping the same. ‘Kraftwagenbahn’ the first public road between Cologne and Bonn was a rapid traffic road, used by vehicles having no level intersections. Being ‘Cars only’ road, it had four lanes of 3 meters width each. The opposite lane was separated not only spatially but also optically, by a 30 cm wide centre line of a distinct colour. This was though frequently ignored and led to many accidents with oncoming

Learnings as the construction of Autobahn proceed

By 1935, the first section between Frankfurt and Darmstadt was opened to traffic. Wherever the change in direction was required, a radius of 200 meters was introduced, avoiding a transitional curve. But this was soon realised as a major disadvantage. No one is capable of abruptly turning the steering wheel at high speed after travelling a long straight stretch. It was also observed that when travelling straight for many kilometres, drivers used to get tired pretty quickly. This would lead them to fall asleep while driving.

Straights were considered to be a taboo for modern roads as it was an advantage for the person who built them but not for the actual user. The usage of straights is to be given appropriate reasoning before implementing in any motorway today. It also brought a rule that any paved road where speed up to 120 km/h can be achieved should not exceed more than 2400 meters.

Hans Lorenz, a road constructor, considered to be a perfect road network to prioritizing safety, which also increases the frequency of usage. It was also discovered with time that along with straight roads, adding a feeling of anxiety creates more trouble, for example having an overhead construction, known as ‘heavenly gates’. It was also understood with the construction of more and more motorways that driver should be able to judge the path that he is following correctly, recognizing bends and see the joins of the road from far away. The exit and entry lanes must be seen in good time. The blending of nature with artificial cutout became one of the ways to visually and spatially separate the two lanes.

Intersection and Motorways

Each Intersection on the Autobahn has some of the other approaches of designing it, but the key concept is to not hinder the flow of traffic just for the vehicle to exit the motorway. (Fig, 6) The layout of junctions has a clover shape for intersections and the trumpet where motorways join. In clover though, it is not to expose the flow of traffic but to segregate the path gradually to connect it with In the early days of motorways, petrol stations were erected on the intersections, sometimes influencing the speed of traffic. This was eventually given up, separating for the petrol station and connection point. Passengers used Autobahn to fill up the pump facing the route, Trucks from the backside. All pumps were roofed and a uniform station facility was adopted throughout all the motorway. It was done so as to enable the driver to orient himself immediately. A rule was formed to have a petrol pump at an interval of every 25 kilometres and at every 50 kilometres, a service area. Orientation being ‘First the horse and then the rider’. The architectural design of the service area restaurants and the section of construction material always reflected the building style of the landscape. Both service areas and petrol pumps, as a rule, are built as double-sided installation.

Autobahn and Hitler

Germany building the Autobahn was seen by Hitler as one of the major advantages, uniting his country, establishing connectivity for all. It was something that Americans viewed it as building a motorway that did not justify the expenses when considered the number of motor vehicles Germans had on the road (the 1930s).

In 1934 at Berlin International Automobile and Motorcycle show, Hitler announced,

“The ordinary hard-working citizen is still unable to afford a car, a means of up-to-date transport and a source of enjoyment in the leisure hours. One must have the courage to face problems and what cannot be solved within one year may become an established fact within ten years... ”

This announcement led to the introduction of Volkswagen (People’s Car), which his people could fill Autobahn with.

By 1938, there were 3,60,000 cars that were registered which were either fully paid or were bought on instalments. But none of the buyers received the proposed car. It was due to political unrest and the need for military vehicles in 1939. (For information on the history of the Volkswagen before and after World War II, see Phil Patton's Bug: The Strange Mutations of the World's Most Famous Automobile, Simon & Schuster, 2002.)

During World War II, Autobahn proved to be a major asset for Germany. It helped Germany to have a controlled attack, defeating Poland in 1939, enhanced Germany's ability to fight on two fronts-Europe in the west, the Soviet Union in the east.

Conclusion

Autobahn set an example for other motorways that were built in Europe. Change in the speed of the motor vehicles, rejecting the idea of having to slow down when an intersection is to be taken and importantly reducing the time taken and that too with increased comfort makes this motorway a well thought ideology, which was largely implemented throughout the world. It is the longest motorway that still functions with no speed limits. With a lot of mistakes like not thinking as per driver while on road, or what is the impact of driving continuously straight for too long, or what if someone had to stop in the middle of the road? Autobahn gave standard principles that must be followed throughout the motorway construction. From the Idea of simply achieving large amounts of speed without worrying about sudden intersections to details such as too many straight roads kill, to the need for service areas, to have a simple design of just a signboard, having an easy interpretation. Autobahn teaches us to consider motorways from the vision of a driver, from the landscape it goes through, having familiar interval/ resting points so as to keep things simple for traffic and most importantly making a connectivity with time.