Dessau race track

Dessau race track

Dessau , Saxony-Anhalt
Route type:	temporary racetrack
Opening:	1938
Decommissioned:	1956
Track layout
Route 1952

Coordinates: 51 ° 45 ′ 24 "  N , 12 ° 13 ′ 38"  E

The Dessau race track was one of the first race tracks in Germany near Dessau .

Origins

The Dessau section of the A 9 motorway was already planned as a record route when the Reichsautobahn was planned. The motorway has no median in this area, and the bridges over the motorway were designed as pillarless steel arch bridges.

“During the Frankfurt Record Week in 1937, the General Inspector for German Roads, Fritz Todt , paid the racing drivers a short visit and spread good news. During the construction of the Reichsautobahn Berlin – Halle – Leipzig, a road surface made of concrete slabs was planned near Dessau, 25 meters wide, 10 kilometers or 10 miles long, without curves. The ideal surface for new high speeds. In February 1938 Rudolf Caracciola set several international records on the Reichsautobahn near Dessau. In a car with a fully streamlined body, it reached an average of 399.6 km / h on February 9, 1939 with a flying start over a mile. Another project could no longer be pursued due to the war: Mercedes-Benz was planning to build a world record car with a 12-cylinder aircraft engine and an output of over 3000 hp. This car (?) Was supposed to bring the absolute speed record to Germany. The German racing driver Hans Stuck was supposed to break the legendary 600 km / h limit with the Mercedes-Benz T 80 on German soil, even though all records were set in the USA on the salt lake in Utah at the time. It was believed that the approx. 22 km straight stretch on the Reichsautobahn between Dessau and Halle would be sufficient for this. "

Use as a reserve runway for the Air Force would have been possible on the section near Dessau. However, there is no evidence of this, and in practice no planes have landed there either.

“Since 1949 there have been a number of racing events on the Dessau Autobahn. There were German championship races for motorcycles, sidecar machines and racing cars with up to 4000 cc. The most prominent racing driver was again Hans Stuck , the father of today's racing legend Hans-Joachim Stuck . The famous youth curve was built in 1952. Due to the increasing traffic and the expansion as a transit route to West Berlin, blocking the autobahn for sporting events is no longer justifiable. The last race took place in 1956. Immediately behind the border of the Dessau city area there is a memorial stone directly on the motorway. This is a reminder of the racing driver Paul Greifzu from Suhl, who died on May 10, 1952 during a training drive for the 3rd Dessau motorway race . "

The stadium in Dessau , which was built by 1952 from rubble from the city, which was badly damaged in the Second World War , received his name.

During the GDR era, the motorway section was held as a makeshift motorway airport . The unused 3rd lane was used to control transit traffic.

Condition of the former start / finish area

Steel arch bridge between Zschepkau and Thalheim

Current condition

At the motorway exit Dessau-Süd in the direction of Dessau, the remains of the former steep curve can still be seen after approx. 500 meters on the right.

The four pillarless steel arch bridges were renovated when the A 9 was expanded to 6 lanes . Section 3 + 1 + 3 was concreted throughout during the expansion in 1995. In the middle lane, however, concrete crash barriers were erected on both sides, and the space in between was filled with earth and planted. Noise barriers were built in some areas . A rest area has been set up along the way.

Web links

Commons : Dessau race track  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Program: 3rd Dessau car and motorcycle race 11 May 1952 . Publisher: Dessau race management - overall design: Dewag-Werbung Dessau IV / 22/2 BO Calbe-1500-379661 / 52
2. ↑ Chronicle of the Gau capital Dessau, 1940
3. ↑ Dessauer Chronik - special issue company Reichsautobahn
4. ↑ Dessau-Geschichte.de: Company Reichsautobahn: The Reichsautobahn is coming to Dessau ( Memento of the original from September 9, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Motorway airfields. www.geschichtsspuren.de , accessed on March 25, 2013 .