The Reichsautobahn: traffic, bridges and verges, 1937
Lorries, a coach and a tanker run along an empty concrete motorway, the road cuts straight through pine forest, and a man scythes the verge under a bridge.
A covered lorry, a streamlined coach and a heavy tanker with a trailer come one after another down a concrete carriageway edged by a white railing, power lines beyond. From a bridge the two carriageways run dead straight between walls of tall pines; a lorry emerges from beneath a flat concrete bridge on slanting piers, a road worker in a cap swings his scythe through the verge below it, and the road sweeps in a wide curve past fresh embankments towards a roadside building.
Fritz Todt, Inspector General of German Roads, began building in September 1933 and opened the thousandth kilometre in September 1936. The motorways were the regime's great showpiece, and in 1937 they were still almost empty.
Film The Reichsautobahn through a pine forest, 1937
Film Lorries and a bus on the Reichsautobahn, 1937
Film A bridge over the Autobahn, 1937
Film A road worker mowing the verge under a bridge, 1937
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