is an

autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It connects the Berliner Stadtring with the

Berliner Ring is an orbital motorway around the German capital city of Berlin. Colloquially called ''Berliner Ring'', it is predominantly located in the state of Brandenburg, with a short stretch of in Berlin itself. It should not be confused with the ''Ber ...

, using parts of the old

AVUS The Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstraße ('Automobile traffic and training road'), known as AVUS, is a public road in Berlin, Germany. Opened in 1921, it was also used as a motor racing circuit until 1998. Today, the AVUS forms the northern par ...

race track. AVUS was opened in 1921 as Germany's first limited access road. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the A 115 served an important function as a transit road between

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

and

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. In 1969, a small part of the autobahn was moved eastwards by GDR authorities so that the ''

Checkpoint Bravo Checkpoint Bravo ("Checkpoint B") was the name given by the Western Allies to the main Autobahn border crossing point between West Berlin and the German Democratic Republic. It was known in German as . Drewitz is a community nearby, and Dreilin ...

border crossing Border control refers to measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it a ...

at Dreilinden would be fully on West Berlin territory (previously, one would enter East German territory again briefly after passing the border check into West Berlin, which posed some problems for the East German regime). From 1975 until reunification, the A 115 was known as the A 15. While parts of today's A115 (the AVUS) were built before any other ''Autobahn'' in Germany, the AVUS wasn't used for public motorcar traffic until after the opening of what is today

Bundesautobahn 555 is an autobahn connecting the cities of Cologne and Bonn. It was constructed between 1929 and 1932, and opened to traffic on 6 August 1932. Because it was the first public road that was limited to motorized vehicles and had no level crossing ...

, which opened in 1932 and is the other claimant for "Germany's first limited access highway".

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