German Alpine Road: "It remains to be seen whether the concept survives"

Created: 01/18/2022, 02:00 p.m

By: Verena Moeckl

Fantastic panoramic drive: The German Alpine Road in front of the Karwendel Mountains © Imago imageBROKER/Franz Walter

Alpine Road expert Simon Kotter in an interview.

A conversation about pleasure drivers, Nazi propaganda and dramatic accidents.

Munich - The German Alpine Road: It inspires locals, tourists and racing drivers.

What makes the street so special?

Simon Kotter, 34, is a researcher at the Glentleiten Open Air Museum.

In the recently published anthology "Die Deutsche Alpenstraße" he dealt extensively with the holiday route.

Simon Kotter © Private

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Mr. Kotter, 13 authors have dealt with the German Alpine Road in the book.

What is so exciting about a street?

Simon Kotter: The German Alpine Road is the oldest holiday route in Germany.

The special thing is that it does not lead over the Alps, but runs across them.

It was primarily created as a prestige object for tourists.

This is a relatively young phenomenon.

Roads used to connect places for economic purposes.

With the Alpine Road, however, the journey is the reward.

Construction began during the Nazi regime.

What was so appealing about the project for the National Socialists?

Building a road in such a spectacular setting was excellent for their propaganda.

As with the construction of the autobahn, the National Socialists wanted to show themselves, the population and, of course, to other countries, what major projects they could handle.

However, the concept of a holiday route is not National Socialist.

That was already abroad.

The idea of ​​a German Alpine road came up in the 1920s.

Hitler then gratefully accepted this and later pushed it forward with great effort.

The German Alpine Road has also inspired racing drivers.

Why?

Organizers are looking for routes that are challenging but doable by car.

Exciting stretches with high gradients and tight curves.

Racers should be able to experience the mountains by car.

By the way, these are the same needs that tourists have.

Now there are only vintage car rides.

Why are hill climbs a thing of the past?

A lot came together.

For one thing, “Formula 1” became more popular.

On the other hand, the safety aspect also clearly plays a role.

Cars drove by at top speed and the spectators sat right on the side of the road without any safety measures.

This led to an increase in fatal accidents.

Not just for the drivers.

A spectator was also killed.

The real death knell for hill climbs came from the environmental movement, which put pressure on politicians in the 1980s.

Environmentalists criticized that it was not up to date to abuse the Alps as a race track.

Is it still appropriate to "abuse" the Alps for walks?

That's an exciting question.

Will there still be such users in the future?

Many from urban areas no longer have their own car.

There are considerations to build a new infrastructure for the Alpine Road with car sharing, bus tours and electromobility.

However, the basic idea of ​​the road is to explore it individually by car.

The coming decades will show whether this concept will survive.

A long way: The German Alpine Road leads from Lake Constance to Lake Königssee – or vice versa.

Lots of sights and a magnificent panorama await you along the way.

© Bayerische Fernwege eV 

Interview: Verena Moeckl