Streets in the GDR

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Motorway at Dammmühle in Tanneberger Loch 1981 (former route of the A4 , now renatured)
Highway 4 in Arnstadt
Sign for the beginning of an expressway according to the GDR traffic regulations from 1956
The sign for transit traffic introduced with the GDR StVO of 1964

The classification of the roads in the GDR consisted of autobahns , trunk roads , country roads I and II, as well as city and express roads . In accordance with the authority's responsibility, a distinction was also made between state and district roads.

Statistical

In 1960 there were a total of 12,335 km of state roads, 33,144 km of district roads and 1,378 km of motorways in the GDR . As of December 31, 1983, the total length of the motorways in the GDR was 1,815.4 km, 117.1 km of which were two-lane (one lane in each direction) and 11.8 km six-lane (three lanes in each direction).

Motorway network

The GDR motorway network was numbered for internal purposes only. The identification was made by naming the connected places on blue signs with white letters. The numbers were not marked. With the Hermsdorfer Kreuz , the Schkeuditzer Kreuz and the Schönefelder Kreuz there were three motorway junctions and a total of 13 junctions (comparable to today's motorway triangles ). There were a total of 212 interchanges along the motorways, 33 of which were temporary, 302 parking spaces, 16 rest stops and 18 petrol stations. The maximum permissible speed was 100 km / h.

The transit routes that enabled passage between the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin played a special role . The main load was carried by today's A 2 .

The motorway network initially consisted only of the former Reichsautobahn . It was not until the late 1950s that the government decided to build new connections. Until reunification , the new construction comprised the following routes or sections:

  • Extension of the Berlin - Frankfurt (Oder) motorway to the border to Poland (today's A 12 ) in 1957.
  • The Cottbus junction (today's Spreewald motorway triangle ) was built in 1962.
  • 1970/1971 Opening of the Leipzig - Grimma or Grimma - Nossen junction (today's A 14 ).
  • Construction of the Berlin - Rostock motorway (today's A 19 and A 24 ) from 1970 to 1978.
  • The "Berliner Ring" (today's A 10 ) was closed in two construction phases between 1972 and 1979
  • Construction of the motorway from the Zarrentin border crossing to Wittstock / Dosse (today part of the A 24 ) from 1978 to 1982, the construction was financed by the Federal Republic of Germany.
  • Construction of a feeder from West Berlin to the Berliner Ring towards the Zarrentin border crossing until 1982, today part of the A 111 .
  • Construction of the motorway from the Schwerin junction to Schwerin- Süd (today: Schwerin-Ost) from 1982 to 1986. After the fall of the Wall, the motorway was given the designation A 241 , today it is part of the A 14. In GDR times, the motorway was supposed to be the To connect the port of Wismar to the existing Zarrentin – Wittstock / Dosse motorway, this project was not completed.
  • Extension of today's A 4 from Eisenach to the inner-German border near Herleshausen with new construction of the Hörschel bridge and the Wartha border crossing point in 1983/1984; financed by the Federal Republic of Germany.

On the other hand, the work on the Halle-Magdeburg motorway (already planned before the war) (today A 14) did not get beyond the planning stage, as did the Dresden-Prague motorway connection planned since the 1960s (today's Federal Motorway 17 ).

The section of the Berliner Ring between the Drewitz and Leipzig junctions was the only six-lane motorway section. The longest two-lane drivable section was between Dresden and Bautzen .

Due to hesitant investments, the streets of the GDR were often in a moderate or even very poor condition even in the 1980s.

The GDR carried out a more extensive road construction program in the 1960s and 1970s:

Many roads were paved in the first place, others were widened to two full lanes and some were redrawn in short sections. In addition, it was repeatedly necessary to relocate roads, mainly due to mining. The success of these measures remained modest, however, and a road network that met the requirements was never available in the GDR - neither qualitatively nor quantitatively. With the onset of the economic crisis, road construction in the GDR had been reduced to an absolutely necessary minimum since the early 1980s.

After the turnaround in 1989/90, the highways were rehabilitated as part of the German Unity transport projects with expenditure of billions and expanded according to the more modern vehicles and the strongly increased traffic volume. Today there are only a few short sections that have not yet been renovated, for example the A114 or parts of the A11 between Kreuz Uckermark and the border with Poland.

Trunk roads

License plate of the trunk road 96 ( Bundesstrasse 96 ) according to the GDR-StVO amendment from 1956

Long-distance traffic routes (abbreviation "F") represented the counterpart to the West German federal highways in the GDR . Their numbering was essentially taken over from the earlier imperial roads. Since the same applied to the federal highways in the Federal Republic of Germany , the numbering system could easily grow together again after German reunification . Since 1978, a general speed limit of 80 km / h (previously 90 km / h) has applied on the trunk roads as well as on all roads outside built-up areas. There has also been a general parking ban on long-distance roads since 1978 .

European roads

The following European roads ran through the GDR:

literature

  • Herbert Schadewald: Driving on the Autobahn . In: Motor year 86. An international review . VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin 1986, p. 57-63 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b street . In: Meyers Taschenlexikon A-Z . VEB Bibliographical Institute, Leipzig 1963, p. 975 .
  2. ^ Germany III: Traffic . In: Meyers Taschenlexikon A-Z . VEB Bibliographical Institute, Leipzig 1963, p. 212 .
  3. ↑ GDR motorway numbers ( memento of the original from November 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.autobahnen-europa.eu
  4. ^ F. Debus: Linguistic norms and norms in the GDR . Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1986, ISBN 3-487-07031-6 , p. 124 .