History of the Autobahn Timeline

In October 1939, the Nazis instituted the first national maximum speed limit, throttling speeds to 80 km/h (50 mph) in order to conserve gasoline for the war effort.

In December 1952 the West German legislature voted to abolish all national speed limits, reverting to State-level decisions.

In 1956, the speed limit was set to 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) in the new version of the Rules of the Road (Straßenverkehrsordnung), which adopted many rules corresponding with international standards of the time. The 50 km/h (31 mph) urban limit was enacted that year, effective in 1957.

The 100 km/h (62 mph) limit on rural roads—except autobahns—became effective in 1972. Just prior to the 1973 oil crisis, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria all had no general speed restriction on autobahns.

During the 1973 oil crisis, like other nations, Germany imposed temporary speed restrictions; for example, 100 km/h (62 mph) on autobahns effective 13 November 1973. After the crisis eased in 1974, the upper house of the German parliament, controlled by conservative parties, successfully resisted a permanent mandatory limit supported by Chancellor Brandt.

In the final report issued in 1977, the Institute stated the mandatory speed limit could reduce the autobahn death toll but there would be economic impacts, so a political decision had to be made due to the trade-offs involved.

By 1987, all restrictions on test sections had been removed, even in Hesse where the state government was controlled by a 'red-green' coalition.

In 1993, the Social Democratic-Green Party coalition controlling the State of Hesse experimented with a 90 km/h (56 mph) limit on autobahns and 80 km/h (50 mph) on other rural roads.

Image source: Hesse

During his term of office (1998 to 2005) as Chancellor of Germany, Gerhard Schröder opposed an autobahn speed limit, famously referring to Germany as an Autofahrernation (a 'nation of drivers').

Image source: Gerhard Schröder

In October 2007, delegates at a Social Democratic Party congress narrowly approved a proposal to introduce a blanket speed limit of 130 km/h (81 mph) on all German autobahns. Chancellor Angela Merkel and leading cabinet members expressed outspoken disapproval of such a measure.

Image source: Social Democratic Party of Germany

In 2008, the Social Democratic-Green Party coalition controlling Germany's smallest state, the paired City-State of Bremen and Bremerhaven, imposed a 120 km/h (75 mph) limit on its last 11 kilometres (6.8 miles) of speed-unlimited autobahn, hoping other States would follow suit.

Image source: Bremen

In 2011, the first-ever Green minister-president of any German state, Winfried Kretschmann of Baden-Württemberg, initially argued for a similar, state-level 120 kilometres per hour (75 mph) limit.

Image source: Winfried Kretschmann

Between 2010 and 2014 in Hesse, transportation ministers Dieter Posch and Florian Rentsch removed or raised speed limits on several sections following regular reviews. In 2014, the conservative-liberal ruling coalition of Saxony confirmed its rejection of a general speed limit, advocating dynamic traffic controls where appropriate instead.

Image source: Free Democratic Party (Germany)

In 2015, the left-green coalition government of Thuringia declared that a general autobahn limit was a federal matter; Thuringia would not unilaterally impose a statewide limit, although the Thuringian environmental minister had recommended a 120 km/h limit.

Image source: Thuringia

In late 2015, Winfried Hermann, Baden-Württemberg's Green transportation minister, promised a trial 120 km/h limit on about 10% of the state's autobahns beginning in May 2016. However, the ruling Green-Social Democratic coalition lost its majority in the March 2016 elections; Hermann retained his post in the new Green-Christian Democratic government but put aside preparations due to opposition from his new coalition partners.

Image source: Winfried Hermann

In 2019, the Green Party introduced a motion to introduce a hard 130 km/h speed limit on the autobahn, but it was defeated in the Bundestag. A second attempt by the Left Party in 2022 was rejected by the majority of the opposition CDU/CSU and AfD and the governing FDP.

Image source: Bundestag

After the war, the four Allied occupation zones established their own speed limits until the divided East German and West German republics were constituted in 1949; initially, the Nazi speed limits were restored in both East and West Germany.

Some sections cut by the Iron Curtain in 1945 were only completed after German reunification in 1990.

Prior to German reunification in 1990, eastern German states focused on restrictive traffic regulation such as a 100 km/h (62 mph) autobahn speed limit and 80 km/h (50 mph) on other rural roads.

Image source: German reunification

The current autobahn numbering system in use in Germany was introduced in 1974, replacing earlier numbering schemes with the A-numbered routes still used today.

Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei, a famous German TV series focusing on the work of a team of motorway police officers and their investigations, is set in the autobahn-intertwined Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area and has run since 1996.

Image source: Alarm for Cobra 11 – The Highway Police

Penalties for tailgating were increased in May 2006 to a maximum of €375 and three months' license suspension; drivers must keep a distance in metres equal to half their speed. The penalty increase followed uproar after an infamous fatal crash on Autobahn 5 in 2003.

On 1 January 2005, a new system came into effect imposing mandatory road tolls (Mautpflicht) on heavy trucks weighing more than 12 t using the German Autobahn system (LKW-Maut). An average user is charged €0.15 per kilometre, or about $0.31 per mile (Toll Collect, 2007).

Image source: Toll Collect

In 2006, measurements from the German state of Brandenburg showed average speeds of 142 km/h (88 mph) on a 6-lane section of Autobahn in free-flowing conditions. Speeds were recorded at two points: a six-lane section of A 9 near Niemegk with a 130 km/h advisory limit, and a four-lane section of A 10 near Groß Kreutz with a 120 km/h mandatory limit.

Since 2009 Germany has embarked on a massive widening and rehabilitation project aiming to increase the number of lanes on many major arterial roads of the highway network, such as the A 5 in the southwest and A 8 going east–west.

The last 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) of the remaining original Reichsautobahn, a section of A 11 northeast of Berlin near Gartz built in 1936—the westernmost remainder of the never-finished Berlinka—was scheduled for replacement around 2015.

A 2017 report by the Federal Road Research Institute reported that in 2015, 70.4% of the Autobahn network had only the advisory speed limit, 6.2% had temporary speed limits due to weather or traffic conditions, and 23.4% had permanent speed limits.

As of 2021, Germany's autobahn network has a total length of about 13,192 kilometres (8,197 mi). In 2016, the motorway density in Germany was 36 kilometers per thousand square kilometers, close to that of smaller neighboring countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Slovenia.