A brief cultural history of the petrol station: book on German Alpine Roads and historical tapping stations has been published

A somewhat different object to visit can recently be admired in the Glentleiten open-air museum: a gasoline filling station.

It stood on the German Alpine Road from the 1950s.

Kochel am See - at the beginning of October the open-air museum opened a somewhat different object for visitors: a gasoline filling station.

It stood near Unterwössen on the German Alpine Road from the 1950s and was rebuilt true to the original in Großweil.

In addition, the right book has now been published by Volk-Verlag.

With a collection of texts and numerous photos, “The German Alpine Road - Germany's oldest holiday route” is described on 288 pages.

The editor is the director of the open-air museum Glentleiten, Monika Kania-Schütz.

Loisachtal and Isarwinkel widely represented

The German Alpine Road leads for almost 500 kilometers through the most beautiful holiday regions along the Alps.

Loisachtal and Isarwinkel are widely represented.

For example with the Kesselberg race, which was held from 1905 and is a symbol of the automotive enthusiasm of that time.

The bold routing of the Alpine Road made exciting motorsport races possible on several sections, as author Stefan Kotter explains.

The book deals with the history of the Alpine Road, which goes deep into the Nazi era, but also describes international models such as the Grossglockner Road or well-known American national park routes.

Architectural and design development of gas stations

In a time of almost unlimited mobility, it is hard to imagine what significance the construction of the Alpine Road had at that time.

In the volumes of the Tölzer Kurier you can read that in 1956 Federal Transport Minister Hans-Christoph Seebohm personally stipulated that the Alpine road from Krün-Wallgau had to lead to the Sylvensteinspeicher, which was under construction, and on to Kreuth and Achensee.

The possibility of taking the alpine road near Lenggries over the Hirschbachsattel towards Tegernsee had also been discussed beforehand.

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The photo is from 1957, the station design is from the pre-war period.

The Schnitzer petrol station in Tölz.

© cs

Every car and motorcycle needs petrol and oil.

The book is also a small cultural history of the gas station.

Using selected examples along the Alpine Road, architecture and design developments are traced.

The title of the chapter is between “Bauhaus and Farmhouse”.

The Schnitzer petrol station in Tölz is also represented with a pre-war Shell construction concept.

Today there are fruits and vegetables instead of petrol and oil

A remarkable chapter shows and describes historical petrol stations along the Alpine road, which no longer exist, but some of which still reveal their historical structure.

Kochel, Benediktbeuern and Bad Heilbrunn are selected examples.

Under the curved roof of the Benediktbeurer petrol station sandwiched between two streets, fruit and vegetables are now sold instead of petrol and oil.

Since 2018, so it can be read, "it has been one of the few petrol stations in Bavaria that are under monument protection and are therefore permanently preserved for posterity."

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In 1929, the Poll car workshop with a free-standing gas pump was built on Döllerfeldweg in Kochel.

© poll / nh

Finally, a 16-page chapter is devoted to the Glentleiten petrol station.

Claudia Richartz describes the eventful history of the technical monument under the title “Fill up once, please!”.

For almost 40 years it stood unused on the federal highway 305 and remained almost intact before it was literally dismantled at the last minute by the open-air museum in Glentleiten and rebuilt 110 kilometers further in Großweil.

It is by far the youngest exhibition building in the open-air museum.

The book

“The German Alpine Road - Germany's oldest holiday route” is available for 24.90 euros from Volk Verlag Munich.