Reichsautobahnen und Stadtplanung

Abstract

Since the end of the 19th century the target to decentralize and structure the highly densified European cities became more and more dominant. The construction of roads reserved for motorized vehicles, setting in with increasing motorization since the 1920s constituted an important reinforcing factor for the car-adapted Transformation of cities. For Germany this was particularly the case with the construction of the Reichsautobahn during the NS-period, which intended structural changes of the cities for ideological reasons. The large city-oriented, often town-circling Reichsautobahn network and its feeder roads affected urban road planning. The concept of a motorway-connected efficient network of main roads with bypasses for the historical centres emerged. For the large cities we can identify the formation of an expanding traffic area in the surrounding region, that, as demonstrated in the case studies, was connected with a restructuring road networks from historical, mostly radial to radial-circular patterns. The NS-period therefore can be classified as a step in the long-term process towards progressive de centralization and functional separation in urban planning from the end of the 19th century to the realization of radical car-friendly cities after the Second World War.