germany's 'autobahn' opened for the first time on 23 september 1933.
germany's 'autobahn' opened for the first time on 23 september 1933.
when did germany's 'autobahn' open for the first time?
23 september 1933
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 centre 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.
autobahn
under the third reich she received state commissions, notably one from fritz todt for portraits of autobahn construction workers, originally commissioned for the "schaffendes volk" exhibition of 1937 as part of todt's effort to have the best photographers in the reich artistically reproduce the new autobahn. todt specifically required her to "photographically [depict] the visages of his reich autobahn workers from the various regions of the fatherland". the book appeared in 1937 and in a revised edition in 1942. presumably todt chose her on the basis of her work in "das deutsche volksgesicht", and the autobahn book follows a similar plan, following the course of the construction from north germany south into the alps, and in each region following illustrations of the landscape and the autobahn, especially the bridges, with depictions of local men working on the project. her pictures of the new bridges emphasise the stonework and the aesthetics of the arches, in some cases using compositional techniques reminiscent of new objectivity, in others situating the gigantic constructions in nature and in tradition, suggesting their lengthy future existence; in one image, a farmer ploughing with a team of oxen is shown beneath an autobahn bridge. those of the workers, which dominate the book, heroicise them by depicting them individually, in tight close-up and from beneath; she makes use of the "cult of the beautiful body" as in leni riefenstahl's "olympia". only occasionally does she pose them looking at the camera, and she rarely shows their tools and then only as illustrations of strength or elements of the composition; she also emphasises hand-work, giving the impression the autobahn was built using very little heavy machinery. captions such as "after years of unemployment, i am once again earning honest bread for seven sons and a daughter" emphasise the importance of the autobahn as a means of reducing unemployment and ignore the reality of forced labour and the bad conditions in the workers' camps reported by eyewitnesses in favour of the propaganda message.
erna lendvai-dircksen