Hitler
reviewing a first convoy on the Autobahn,
Copyright picture-alliance / dps used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported. © Copyright 2015
The automobile began taking over as the primary form of worldwide transportation in the early
1910’s. Most roads were dirt, cobblestone, or early versions of macadam. Automobiles using these
roads had to dodge animals, children playing, people walking, and horse drawn conveyances. Most
residents relied upon the train for long distance travel.
All over Europe, various private organizations were working to
promote auto only roads. “Although Hitler has often been given
credit for the autobahn, the real precursors were the Avus experimental highway
in Berlin (built between 1913 and 1921), and Italy’s 130-kilometer autostrada
tollway between Milan and the northern Italian lakes (completed in 1923). (http://www.german-way.com/) These early autobahns “featured limited-access and grade-separated
crossings, but no medians. The first Reichsautobahnen did have narrow medians but lacked
shoulders, and ramps and waysides had cobblestone surfaces. “ (http://www.gettingaroundgermany.info/autobahn.shtml#design)
In Novemeber of 1926, 'HAFRABA'
(the Planning Association for the Motorway linking the Hanseatic Towns,
Frankfurt and Basle) was begun at the instigation of Willy Hof, Chairman of the
Deutsche Handels-Gesellschaft in Frankfurt.
(http://www.historytoday.com/uwe-oster/autobahn-myth#sthash.s3peRSKi.dpuf)
There was not enough money to begin
constructing the auto only roads because of the depression, but HAFRABA began
laying out the first plans and began convincing Germans of the need for Auto
Only roads.
When the Nazis came to power during the depression, they
collaborated with the communists to oppose the auto only roads. In 1933 the opposition vanished when Hitler
was elected. He took the idea of auto
only roads and ran with it. Fritz Todt had
authored the Brown Report, and Hitler read this to an audience at the February
11th Berlin Auto show. “A law establishing the Reichsautobahn
project under that name was passed on June 27, 1933, and the Gesellschaft Reichsautobahnen (Reichsautobahns Association) was
founded on August 25 as a subsidiary of the Reichsbahn, thereby removing its
objections.[16] Todt was named Generalinspektor für das deutsche
Straßenwesen (Inspector-General
for the German Road System) on June 30.”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsautobahn)
Hitler rapidly wiped out any opposition,
removed Jewish participants, and began construction on “Work Day” 1933.
Publicity began in August of 1933
with a radio play, “We are building a road.”
In September, 720 workers marched to the Frankfort Stock Exchange and wereinvested
with shovels as Reichautobahn workers.
They followed Todt to the banks of the Main where Hitler was to
ceremoniously move a shovelful of dirt and officially open the Autobahn. Todt wrote later, "again
and again…(Hitler’s) shovel plunged into the mound [of dirt]. This was no
symbolic shoveling; this was real construction work!" Two of the workers
"sprang ... to help him", and they worked "until the mound
had been dealt with in an orderly fashion and ... the first drops of sweat
were dripping from his brow onto the earth".[24] The image of
Hitler shoveling was used many times in propaganda.” (Wiki Reichsautobahn) And propaganda was what it was all about in the beginning.
When asked, Todt would say that
Hitler sketched out ideas for the Autobahn while he was in prison. With Todt’s backing, the myth of “Hitler’s
Roads” grew. Publicity photographs of
Hitler with a shovel were often used.
Driving the Autobahn
tells us, “Although Germany’s depressed economy and hyperinflation of
the late 1920s prevented plans for new autobahns from being carried out at the
time, many miles of roadway were built during the time of the Third Reich.
Hitler saw the construction of autobahns primarily as a military advantage; its
benefit as a job-creation program in the 1930s was an added plus.”
___________________________________________________________________
LINKS:
https://www.dw.com/en/the-myth-of-hitlers-role-in-building-the-autobahn/a-16144981
</A>
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3040310/theyre-going-to-bury-a-stretch-of-german-autobahn-and-cover-it-in-parks>Covering
the Autobahn</A>
http://www.autobahn-online.de/images/gallerie_e.html>Autobahn
Pictures</A> Historic photos pg 2
http://www.berlinka.pcp.pl/index.php>Berlinka</A>
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/reichs.cfm>Highway
History</A>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn>Autobahn
History</A>
http://www.german-way.com/travel-and-tourism/driving-in-europe/driving/autobahn/
Within six years after the completion of the first Cologne-Bonn autobahn
in 1932, Germany added 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles) of super highway to its
road network. Although Hitler has often been given credit for the autobahn, the
real precursors were the Avus experimental highway in Berlin (built between
1913 and 1921) and Italy’s 130-kilometer autostrada tollway between Milan and
the northern Italian lakes (completed in 1923). Although Germany’s depressed
economy and hyperinflation of the late 1920s prevented plans for new autobahns
from being carried out at the time, many miles of roadway were built during the
time of the Third Reich. Hitler saw the construction of autobahns primarily as
a military advantage; its benefit as a job-creation program in the 1930s was an
added plus.
http://www.gettingaroundgermany.info/autobahn.shtml#design
Early Autobahns were rather crude by today's
standards. The first Autobahns, like their Italian counterparts, featured
limited-access and grade-separated crossings, but no medians. The first Reichsautobahnen did have narrow medians but lacked
shoulders, and ramps and waysides had cobblestone surfaces. When Germany
was reunified in 1989, the Autobahns of East Germany
http://www.historytoday.com/uwe-oster/autobahn-myth
The run-up to the history of the German motorways goes back to the
1920s. Several organisations tried to convince Germans that their happiness no
longer lay on the back of a horse, and the future belonged to the motor car.
And cars would need straight stretches of road that allowed them to get up to
top speed – unimpeded by horse-drawn vehicles, playing children and dusty road
surfaces. The founding of 'HAFRABA' (the Planning Association for the Motorway
linking the Hanseatic Towns, Frankfurt and Basle) in November 1926 at the
instigation of Willy Hof, Chairman of the Deutsche Handels-Gesellschaft in
Frankfurt, was crucial to the subsequent realisation of motorway dreams. Thus
it was not initially a government initiative that lay behind the 'motorway
myth', but an association whose members were prominent advocates of the idea of
motorways from industry, commerce and the administration. This association was
not in a position to put motorway construction on the political agenda – that
would have gone well beyond its powers – but plans for construction were to be
drawn up, and above all they were able to beat the publicity drum and convince
the Germans of the need to build motorways.
- See more at:
http://www.historytoday.com/uwe-oster/autobahn-myth#sthash.s3peRSKi.dpuf
http://www.dw.com/en/the-myth-of-hitlers-role-in-building-the-autobahn/a-16144981
Historians now
say that Adolf Hitler simply jumped on the bandwagon of increasing mobility
that was already gathering momentum across the world. He
certainly recognized the potential for securing his own
power and seducing an entire nation with what looked at first like a
crazy enterprise. At the time, it seemed clear that very few Germans would
be able to afford their own car in order to drive on the new
motorways. So Nazi propaganda promised the people full mobility.
The idea was to enable everybody to travel - not just the rich. This was
how the idea of the Volkswagen - the "people's car" - was born.
Hitler also made the German national rail company introduce
omnibus transport on the first sections of the new autobahns.
“Triebischtal-Tanneberg. Autobahn bei der
Dammmühle”
Copyright: Deutsche Fotothek [CC
BY-SA 3.0 de (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)], via
Wikimedia Commons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsautobahn
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