While many of us may enjoy the freedom and exhilaration of driving down a highway, motorway, autostrada, or autoroute, there is always something about the word autobahn that captures our imagination. Though it is not what many of us imagine it to be – Germans racing around at 200mph in supercars – it is still more than just a roadway in the minds of many.
The word autobahn is, of course, German, and is a combination of auto, meaning motor car or automobile, and bahn, meaning path or road. The initial concept for the autobahn dates back to the Avus experimental highway, which began construction in Berlin in 1913, but by the time the first segments or the autobahn were being completed in the early 1930’s, the Italians had already started building their autostrada, causing the New York Times to state in 1934 that: “The ‘autobahn’ is a lineal descendant of the ‘autostrada’ which Mussolini inaugurated in Italy.” Still, the Germans aimed to prove they were no slackers: from 1932 to 1938, 1,860 miles of autobahn were constructed, outpacing the Italians.
Stating that: “In the last six months or so there has sprung up from several quarters a demand for motorways, or autobahnen or autostrade—meaning..new roads for the exclusive use of motor traffic,” the Sunday Times in 1937 was able to see the utilitarian ability to move goods and people that the autobahn presented. Still, between utilitarianism and fantasy, there are some interesting facts about these 6,800 miles of roadway. It is not a free-for-all: tailgating and passing on the right is not allowed, and the government recommends a speed of 80mph, though 60% of the autobahn has no speed limit.
The public speed record of almost 270mph was recorded by the Formula 1 driver Rudolf Caracciola in a Mercedes-Benz W125 with a V-12 engine in 1938. Germans are literally trained to handle this speed, but most others are not: getting a German driver’s license requires more than a dozen theory lessons and at least a dozen driving lessons, but their automotive fatality rates (per 100,000) people are 66% lower than the US.
The autobahn has an allure that few roadways can match. While most of us have to make due with residential-area speeds or the occasional speed burst on the highway when nobody is looking, the autobahn represents the freedom and unfettered pleasure of driving that most of us dream about.
Perhaps no quote can better sum up the dreams of many- especially on a boring weekday afternoon at work- than one from Chris Petit’s book The Human Pool, which simply states: “Hire car. Autobahn. No speed limit. I drove as fast as I could.”
