Federal motorway 24

	Template: Infobox high-ranking street / Maintenance / DE-A
	Bundesautobahn 24 in Germany
	map
	Basic data
Operator:	Federal Republic of Germany
Start of the street:	Hamburg ; ( 53 ° 34 ′ N , 10 ° 4 ′ E )
End of street:	Kremmen ; ( 52 ° 43 ′ N , 13 ° 0 ′ E )
Overall length:	237 km
State :	Hamburg; Schleswig-Holstein; Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania; Brandenburg;
Development condition:	four-lane, six-lane
	Federal motorway 24 near Dechtow / Hakenberg
	Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
	State of Schleswig-Holstein
	State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
	State of Brandenburg
	Under construction; In planning; Traffic control system ;

The federal motorway 24 (abbreviation: A 24) connects Hamburg and Berlin, the two largest cities in Germany. The route between the Horner Kreisel in the east of Hamburg and the Havelland motorway triangle on the Berliner Ring is a 237 km long section of Europastraße 26 .

course

The motorway begins in Hamburg at the Horner roundabout and runs through Hamburg-Marienthal and Hamburg-Jenfeld to the Hamburg-Ost motorway junction . Here the A 24 crosses the A 1 Lübeck – Hamburg – Bremen motorway and then continues east through the Sachsenwald , meets the B 404 at the Schwarzenbek / Grande junction , which - partially expanded as the A 21 - towards Bad Segeberg and Kiel leads. A little east of Hornbek, the motorway crosses the Elbe-Lübeck Canal , leads through the Lauenburg Lakes Nature Park and, between Gudow and Zarrentin am Schaalsee, not far from the Schaalsee, it reaches the Schleswig-Holstein state border with Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania .

Here the motorway runs through the Ludwigslust-Parchim district . The A 14 (previously: A 241 ) is crossed at the Schwerin motorway junction . This leads in a northerly direction via Schwerin to Wismar to the A 20 ( Lübeck - Rostock ). In a southerly direction it currently leads to Karstädt and will be expanded to Magdeburg in the 2010s and 2020s and will then establish a connection to the A 2 and, with its existing southern part, to Halle, Leipzig ( A 9 ) and Dresden ( A 4 ). Schwerin can also be reached via the Hagenow ( B 321 ) and Wöbbelin exits ( B 106 until 2015 , L 72 since 2016). Near Suckow, the state border to Brandenburg is crossed, here several kilometers of foothills of the Ruhner Mountains are crossed.

In Brandenburg the route leads through the districts of Prignitz , Ostprignitz-Ruppin and Oberhavel . At the Wittstock / Dosse motorway triangle , the motorway is interwoven with the A 19 from Rostock . From here on, the motorway continues as part of Europastraße 55 to the Havelland motorway triangle on the Berliner Ring.

history

1930 until the end of the war

Beginning of the A 24 (before 1974: A 1) in Hamburg-Horn, originally the text on the wall was: "Reichsautobahn"

Unused motorway bridge near Hagenow from the former route planning in the 1930s

Construction of the Reichsautobahn RAB 44 (Hamburg – Berlin) began as early as the 1930s. In 1937, the route from the Horner Kreisel, the western end of the autobahn, to the Hamburg Ost junction (then known as the “Berliner Abzweig”) was opened to traffic. Then the highway led without Abfahrmöglichkeit of Lübeck range of today's A 1 . The Hamburg-Ost cross was only available in fragments at the time. The Ostkreuz was only partially completed around 1960 in order to be able to integrate the “southern bypass” in the direction of Hanover / Bremen at least in 1961. However, at that time there was not yet the possibility of changing to this new route from the direction of Horn, this only became possible around 1980 when appropriate connecting ramps were built. In 1976 the Hamburg-Jenfeld junction was built, which did not exist before. The bridges on this section of the route (as well as on the Lübeck route) were kept very simple in exposed concrete. The Rennbahnstrasse bridge at km 0.5, which has meanwhile been demolished and replaced by a new building, was an exception: the abutments of this bridge were faced with red bricks. Visible from Berlin, a Hamburg coat of arms made of fired tiles was attached to the wall next to the passage. At the Horner roundabout there is still a concrete block on the median in the direction of Berlin with the inscription "BUNDESAUTOBAHN" (see picture). Before the war the inscription was "REICHSAUTOBAHN", whereby "Reichs" was removed quite soon after the end of the war. It was not until 1980 that the logo was completed in the current sense.

From 1937, construction began on the section leading from today's Hamburg-Ost motorway junction towards Berlin. The Low German observer reported on September 23, 1937 that the construction work would begin in the next few days, and the expected completion date was 1940. According to the sheet, the motorway should have a total width of 26.5 meters and lanes each 7.5 meters wide. For the first time, a green strip for parked vehicles was planned for the Reichsautobahn. A rest stop was to be built near Valluhn . In February 1938, the Schwerin Employment Office calculated that the demand for labor after the winter, during which construction was suspended, could not be met in the region, and they considered recruiting workers from West Germany and Silesia. In Mecklenburg, where work began in February, orders for the production of sections with lengths of six to ten kilometers were awarded to private companies. Construction managers based in Wittenburg and Ludwigslust were subordinate to the Supreme Construction Management in Hamburg-Altona. During excavations with the involvement of Robert Beltz , a cemetery from the Bronze Age was discovered near Kogel , which also caught the attention of Gauleiter Friedrich Hildebrandt , who was interested in the early Germanic settlement. A delegation under Minister of State Scharf had the site explained to them on June 18, 1938. This should then be placed under protection and a rest area should be built in its neighborhood. The excavations delayed work on the motorway section by around ten weeks.

Numerous bridges were built between Hamburg and the Sachsenwald as well as in the Hagenow area , the roadways were already leveled and the edge strips partially relocated. In February 1939, the Ludwigslust construction department reported that it was lagging behind the schedule. With the beginning of the war , construction was further delayed due to the withdrawal of forces, for example for military service or the construction of the motorway in Ostmark. After the Wittenburg construction department was dissolved at the beginning of 1939, work on the autobahn almost completely came to a standstill after the Pritzwalker department was closed. On February 1, 1940, there were plans to determine the intersection of the Hamburg - Berlin routes and a north-south connection, but this was no longer implemented. In April 1940, the clearing served at least the purpose of obtaining heating material from the remaining tree stumps after the Ludwigslust district administrator had applied for this to the remaining Ludwigslust construction department due to the shortage of firing material. When the Hagenower District Administrator made a similar application a little later, the construction department was no longer able to do so due to the labor shortage. It is not known whether prisoners of war performed this task. The construction of the motorway was officially interrupted in 1941.

The tunnel at the Hamburg-Ost motorway junction, which already existed during the war years but was not yet in operation, served as an alternative location for the manufacture of aircraft parts, safe from bombing. For this purpose, the driveways were walled up and the interior divided into three rooms. British pioneers later used the structure.

At Hagenow, the route of the originally planned route can still be seen on satellite photos. B. can be recognized by rows of trees. On the district road between Viez and Bakendorf , the remains of a motorway bridge without any function from that time can be seen.

At kilometer 14.0 there was a bridge consisting of two segment arches from the time before the war over the A24 until December 2014. It connected the villages of Büchsenschinken and Kronshorst, and was faced with bricks. Another bridge of a similar design was located at km 9.5 until April 2016. It was the last remaining bridge from the times of the Reichsautobahn on the A24. In contrast to the former, this one had only one segment arch over both lanes. At kilometer 48.7, the southern and northern abutments and the central pillar of a former bridge were preserved. The peculiarity of this bridge was that it had its own passage for a dirt road on the northern side. It has now been replaced by a new building.

1950 to 1989

Bridge and unfinished route near Hamburg (1960)

The Border Crossing Point Before Zarrentin (November 12, 1989)

After the Second World War, the division of Germany prevented further construction. It was not until 1978 that the Hamburg-Ost motorway junction with the Barsbüttel tunnel and a section of the route were opened to traffic. It reached up to an auxiliary descent at Stemwarde / Neuschönningstedt. Today's Reinbek descent did not exist at the time. In the same year, the final construction of the motorway for transit traffic through the GDR was agreed between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic . On the East German side, the section between Wittstock and the Havelland triangle, which is part of the motorway from Berlin to Rostock, was completed in the 1970s. The Federal Republic paid for the construction of the remaining 1.2 billion D-Mark (today: around 1,180,004,000 euros) through the GDR, which was carried out by Kombinaten until 1982 . Most of the bridges completed before the war were demolished and replaced by new ones. Today's route at Hagenow deviates from the original plan because of a shooting range created by the Soviet troops in the meantime . Along the autobahn, gravel extraction resulted in some quarry ponds, including near Kraak and Neu Zachun .

The autobahn became a transit autobahn when traffic was opened between today's Wittstock triangle and the Putlitz exit at the end of 1980: The transit traffic that previously ran on trunk road 5 (now the B 5) was between the Nauen exit (now Berlin-Spandau on the A 10 ) and the Putlitz exit via the Autobahn. Then it went on country roads to Karstädt and on to Boizenburg to the old Lauenburg / Horst crossing. From the spring of 1982, today's A 24 was accessible to the Neustadt-Glewe exit. At the same time, the Stolpe / Mecklenburg rest area was opened. At the same time, the transit traffic up to there was carried over the new route, and then on to Ludwigslust to the F 5. On November 20, 1982 the remaining route between Neustadt-Glewe and the border and on the German side the route (Hamburg-) Neuschönningstedt - Gudow became free given. When the new Gudow / Zarrentin border crossing was opened to traffic at the same time , transit traffic was completely relocated to the motorway. Only between the Nauen exit and the Staaken / Heerstraße border crossing was the old country road for a few years before the new Heiligensee / Stolpe border crossing was opened in 1988.

Near the Putlitz exit there was a parking lot on both sides that could only be used by coaches in transit: on the south side (accessible from the north side via a pedestrian bridge) there was a rest house with an attached Intershop . In addition to the rest house, two flat-roof houses were built for staff, which still exist today. The rest house, on the other hand, has since been demolished.

During the GDR era, there were two special features between the Herzsprung and Neuruppin runs: On the one hand, the Walsleben rest area is still there today. Even then, it had petrol stations that could be reached in each direction of travel and, in addition, restaurant buildings that were kept quite simple: on the south side (towards Berlin) there was a rest house next to a toilet building, which was also frequented by GDR citizens. So here GDR citizens and transit travelers could sit table to table, which was certainly not always what the security organs of the GDR wanted. On the other side (towards Rostock / Hamburg) there was a rather generous “transit intershop” instead of the restaurant. The peculiarity of the transit shops located on the motorways was that the price level of the goods offered for Westgeld was well below the price level of normal Intershops, such as those in hotels or train stations in cities. At the time, the facilities on both sides of the motorway were connected by a pedestrian bridge that had long since been demolished. There was another special feature a few kilometers north of this rest area: there the motorway section is completely straight and free of bridges. At that time it was concreted throughout without a median. There were no guard rails (as was generally the case on GDR motorways). What made this area also noticeable were the large parking lots, which were always closed, and the oversized zebra crossings across the entire width of the motorway: This was one of the makeshift airfields (not so rare in the former federal territory) . However, it was seldom that this particular facility was so obvious, especially since there were military restricted areas to the right and left of the motorway.

Wittenburg was the last public departure on the GDR side from Berlin. Sign gantries unmistakably warned drivers of “DDR-Kfz” that they had to leave the autobahn here. Only the "cross-border traffic" and drivers in the "transit BRD" were allowed to continue. The Zarrentin exit did not exist back then, as it would have been in the border area.

Exactly at today's exit Zarrentin there was a checkpoint that a transit traveler could pass through at 20 km / h. All other road users had to stop and identify themselves before they were allowed to continue to the actual Gudow / Zarrentin border crossing . This is where the GDR border area began in the sense of the 5 km exclusion zone. After two kilometers you passed a (now closed) parking lot. There was a rest house with a restaurant, Intershop and a branch of the State Bank of the GDR on the south side (accessible via a pedestrian bridge) . Those entering the GDR had the opportunity to exchange West money for GDR marks as part of the compulsory exchange .

The border crossing itself was south of the motorway on the site of today's Valluhn / Gallin industrial park. The continuous motorway was reserved for truck traffic. Car or bus drivers had to leave or cross the motorway via exits and bridges in order to reach the control point. Compared to the other GDR border crossings, this border crossing made a very generous impression. Within the control point there were separate lanes for cross-border traffic, for transit traffic and for buses. So that there were no misunderstandings, one was stopped at the entrance to the facility and pointed out to the lane to be used. After leaving the control point, one had to cover another 1.5 km stretch in GDR territory.

The remnants of the handling facilities were demolished around 1993.

On the German side, the Gudow rest area was located directly on the border . At that time there were already rest houses with restaurants on both sides. Above all, the rest house on the north side stood out for its spaciousness and thus formed a very clear contrast to the rest areas in the GDR. The customs clearance facilities were on the autobahn for cars, but on the rest areas for trucks. On the north side there was also a larger administration building for federal customs . Until around 1990 there was the possibility of legally changing the direction of travel with the help of a bridge over the motorway. For this purpose roads were laid out that were signposted accordingly. The streets are still there today, only that they no longer explicitly point to the motorway in the opposite direction, but to the Gudow Motel, which is located in the old federal customs building on the north side. The game barriers that are laid there are very rare on German autobahns: instead of a road surface, railway tracks are laid across a few meters, which make it impossible for game to get onto the autobahn site, but which can be used by cars without problems. Above all, the Federal Border Police used this option as part of its patrol trips. For visitors there was a small parking lot near the bridge, from which one could go directly to the border line. As is so often the case on the inner-German border, there were information boards there about the construction of the border installations.

Kilometrage

Today the kilometers of the A 24 starts at the Horner Kreisel in Hamburg with 0.0 and ends with 236.9 at the Havelland triangle. At the time of the division of Germany, things looked different. It was the same on the German side, except that the Gudow border crossing ended with 51.6. On the GDR side, the kilometering began with 0.0 at the Rostock junction (today: triangle Havelland) and ran up to Rostock, thus in the opposite direction and on in the sense of today's A 19. At the "Wittstocker junction" (today: Dreieck Wittstock ) the kilometering started again at 0.0 and ran up to the inner-German border crossing, where it ended with approx. 122. The blue distance tables never gave the distance to Hamburg or even “West Berlin”, but always only Rostock and Wittstock or, in the further course, Schwerin and Wittenburg. In the opposite direction, these were Schwerin, Potsdam and of course Berlin, the capital of the GDR. In the direction of Berlin, as a German citizen, you could take the guideline Berlin, the capital of the GDR, and subtract 10 kilometers, then you had about the distance to the zoo area. Under the distance information there was always the note “Transit-BRD” or “Transit-Westberlin” in green letters on a yellow background, without any indication of kilometers. From around 1988 the text in the direction of travel from West Germany was changed to "Transit-BRD (Hamburg)".

1990 until today

In order to take account of the increased volume of traffic, extensive work has been carried out on the Hamburg-Ost motorway junction since 2001. The renovation of the tunnel and the renewal of the lane between Reinbek and the intersection with the A 1 made it necessary to completely block the direction of Hamburg for more than three months by the beginning of November 2006. The work on the 27 million euro large project was completed in November 2007.

The only non-rehabilitated section of the A24 was between the Reinbek junction and the state border between Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. It was mainly made of concrete, with the damaged areas being repaired selectively. The renovation work was completed at the end of 2015.

Immediately after the opening of the border, a makeshift exit was opened for public transport near Zarrentin. It was previously only used by the border troops and other authorized persons as an entrance to the motorway. In later years the originally very narrow descent was completely rebuilt.

On January 1, 2003, a speed limit of 130 km / h was set for the heavily used, congestion-prone and above-average accident-prone section between the Wittstock / Dosse triangle and the AD Havelland . Since its introduction, the number of accidents, particularly those involving road users who have died in an accident, has fallen enormously.

In order to connect the largest industrial park in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Valluhn / Gallin) that was built after the fall of the Wall , and in which many logistics companies, among others, have settled, the Gallin sub- junction, which can only be used from and towards Hamburg, was set up by February 2008 and September 2013 .

Almost 32 years after the opening of the autobahn, the previous non-public driveway at Gudow was opened as junction 8b Gudow after three months of construction at the end of October 2014 . The junction can now be used in all directions. ^▼53.538202 10.728436

expansion

Linumer Bruch service area

In July 2011, the planning approval decision for the six-lane expansion from the Neuruppin junction (A 24) to the Oberkrämer junction (A 10) including the renovation of the Havelland triangle was published. The actual renewal in this section should, however, take place again in four lanes. Only the possibility of using the widened hard shoulder will be created.

In the course of closing the gap on the A 14 between Schwerin and Magdeburg , the Schwerin motorway triangle was converted into a motorway junction. Approval took place on June 26, 2015. As an A 14 junction was given the name Ludwigslust , the A 24 junction Ludwigslust was renamed Wöbbelin in April 2013 .

Near Fehrbellin and Herzsprung (Heiligengrabe) , the new rumble strips are being tested, which are intended to make the driver aware of the impending danger of dangerous dangling movements.

Web links

Commons : Bundesautobahn 24 - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Detailed route description of the federal motorway 24

Individual evidence

↑ Egbert Neumann: Bundesautobahn 14 Section 4 AS Wittenberge - AS Karstädt 6th project-accompanying working group July 12, 2017. (PDF) Ministry of Infrastructure and State Planning, State of Brandenburg, July 12, 2017, accessed on September 19, 2017 .
↑ https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/mecklenburg-vorpommern/A14-bis-Magdeburg-erst-2030-komplett,autobahn2128.html
^ First Prignitzer A14 section opened to traffic. Berliner Morgenpost , December 21, 2015, archived from the original on June 12, 2018 . ; accessed on July 3, 2020 .
^ The unfinished Autobahn - Mecklenburgmagazin of the Schweriner Volkszeitung and the Nordkurier of March 14, 2008
↑ Michael Grube: U-relocation "Kolibri", Barsbüttel. In: geschichtsspuren.de. Interest group for historical military, industrial and transport structures, accessed on November 13, 2017 .
↑ A24 renovation completed after 15 years. In: Die Welt Online . December 21, 2015, accessed May 29, 2017 .
↑ Largest industrial park in the country with a direct connection to the A 24 - opening of the new junction. MV INVEST, February 2008, accessed November 13, 2017 .
↑ Approval of the Valluhn / Gallin junction on the A 24. ICN Ingenieure, September 2, 2013, accessed on December 27, 2013 .
↑ Mayk Pohle: The next departure after the border is now Gudow. In: Hagenower Kreisblatt. November 3, 2014, accessed July 7, 2015 .
↑ Planning approval decision for the 6-lane expansion of the federal motorway (BAB) 24 and the BAB 10. State of Brandenburg, Ministry of Infrastructure and Agriculture, July 26, 2011, archived from the original on September 14, 2012 ; Retrieved April 6, 2012 .
^ A 24: District Administrator Reinhardt protests at the groundbreaking ceremony. July 5, 2018, accessed December 28, 2018 .
↑ Minister level clears the Schwerin motorway junction for traffic. Ministry of Energy, Infrastructure and State Development Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, June 26, 2015, archived from the original on July 1, 2015 ; accessed on June 30, 2015 .
↑ Junction points on Autobahn 14 and 24 near Ludwigslust will be renamed. Ministry of Energy, Infrastructure and Regional Development Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, April 25, 2014, accessed on April 25, 2013 .

[:1-1] Egbert Neumann: Bundesautobahn 14 Section 4 AS Wittenberge - AS Karstädt 6th project-accompanying working group July 12, 2017. (PDF) Ministry of Infrastructure and State Planning, State of Brandenburg, July 12, 2017, accessed on September 19, 2017 .

[2] ttps://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/mecklenburg-vorpommern/A14-bis-Magdeburg-erst-2030-komplett,autobahn2128.html

[3] First Prignitzer A14 section opened to traffic. Berliner Morgenpost , December 21, 2015, archived from the original on June 12, 2018 . ; accessed on July 3, 2020 .

[4] The unfinished Autobahn - Mecklenburgmagazin of the Schweriner Volkszeitung and the Nordkurier of March 14, 2008

[5] Michael Grube: U-relocation "Kolibri", Barsbüttel. In: geschichtsspuren.de. Interest group for historical military, industrial and transport structures, accessed on November 13, 2017 .

[6] A24 renovation completed after 15 years. In: Die Welt Online . December 21, 2015, accessed May 29, 2017 .

[7] Largest industrial park in the country with a direct connection to the A 24 - opening of the new junction. MV INVEST, February 2008, accessed November 13, 2017 .

[8] Approval of the Valluhn / Gallin junction on the A 24. ICN Ingenieure, September 2, 2013, accessed on December 27, 2013 .

[9] Mayk Pohle: The next departure after the border is now Gudow. In: Hagenower Kreisblatt. November 3, 2014, accessed July 7, 2015 .

[10] Planning approval decision for the 6-lane expansion of the federal motorway (BAB) 24 and the BAB 10. State of Brandenburg, Ministry of Infrastructure and Agriculture, July 26, 2011, archived from the original on September 14, 2012 ; Retrieved April 6, 2012 .

[11] A 24: District Administrator Reinhardt protests at the groundbreaking ceremony. July 5, 2018, accessed December 28, 2018 .

[12] Minister level clears the Schwerin motorway junction for traffic. Ministry of Energy, Infrastructure and State Development Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, June 26, 2015, archived from the original on July 1, 2015 ; accessed on June 30, 2015 .

[13] Junction points on Autobahn 14 and 24 near Ludwigslust will be renamed. Ministry of Energy, Infrastructure and Regional Development Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, April 25, 2014, accessed on April 25, 2013 .