The Schönefelder Kreuz (also: Autobahnkreuz Schönefeld, short AK Schönefeld, or Kreuz Schönefeld) is a cloverleaf interchange, with a direct link

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and also a direct link Frankfurt (Oder)-

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

, in the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

state of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...

in the metropolitan region of Berlin-Brandenburg. The interchange forms the connection between the

A113 A113 (sometimes A-113, A-1-13, A1-13 or A11-3) is an inside joke and Easter egg in media developed by alumni of California Institute of the Arts, referring to the classroom used by graphic design and character animation students. History Student ...

(''Flughafenautobahn'') coming from Berlin and the A13 coming from

to the A10 (''Berliner Ring''), the Berlin Beltway.

Geography

The interchange lies in the municipal areas of

Mittenwalde Mittenwalde () is a town in the Dahme-Spreewald district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 30 km southeast of Berlin (centre). On May 28, 1562, the town of Mittenwalde lent Berlin 400 guilders, a debt which has never been repaid, thou ...

and

Schönefeld Schönefeld (meaning ''beautiful field'') is a suburban municipality in the Dahme-Spreewald district, Brandenburg, Germany. It borders the southeastern districts of Berlin. The municipal area encompasses the old Berlin Schönefeld Airport (SXF) a ...

. The nearby cities and villages are

Königs Wusterhausen Königs Wusterhausen () is a town in the Dahme-Spreewald district of the state of Brandenburg in Germany a few kilometers outside Berlin. Geography Geographical location Königs Wusterhausen – or "KW" () as it is often called locally – ...

Zeuthen Zeuthen is a municipality in the district of Dahme-Spreewald in Brandenburg in Germany. Geography It is located near the southeastern Berlin city limits on the western shore of the Dahme River and the Zeuthener See. It borders Eichwalde in the ...

und

Wildau Wildau () is a German town of the state of Brandenburg, located in the district of Dahme-Spreewald. It is located close to Berlin and easily reached by the ''S-Bahn''. As of 2019 its population was 10,404 inhabitants. History The history of Wilda ...

. The nearby village districts are Kiekebusch and Diepensee of Schönefeld as well as Brusendorf and Ragow of Mittenwalde. The city Schönefeld, after which the interchange is named, lies approximately 10 km north of the interchange. in 2008 the A113 was diverted to the east, so they could connect the road to the new

Berlin Brandenburg Airport Berlin Brandenburg Airport ''Willy Brandt'' (german: Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg "Willy Brandt", , ) is an international airport in Schönefeld, just south of the German capital Berlin in the state of Brandenburg. Named after the former ...

(BER) that, at the time was and still is under construction, to the A113. The new connection lies between the interchange and the old Berlin-Schönefeld Airport. Near the interchange lies the national reserve Naturpark Dahme-Heideseen.

History

The interchange opened in 1938 with the name ''Lausitzer Dreieck'' (later: ''Lausitzer Abzweig'') as a

trumpet interchange In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, usi ...

. Back then, the link towards

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

–Dresden had a radius of 170 meters, so that the roadbed could have a gradient of 8 percent. After the construction of the Berlin Wall a motorway was needed to connect the southwestern Berlin beltway with East Berlin, because all the other interchanges in the southern beltway were connections with motorways coming from

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 ...

. This part of the motorway, nowadays part of the A113 and A117, had to be connected to the old interchange. In this way, the old trumpet interchange had to be reconstructed into a cloverleaf interchange. But the semi-direct connection Frankfurt–Dresden stayed intact and the new semi-direct link Dresden–

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...

was newly built. The reconstruction of the Schönefelder Kreuz in the 1990s ended as a Mixform; nowadays it looks like mix between a cloverleaf interchange and a turbine interchange but is categorized as a

combination interchange In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, using ...

. The north-west and the south-east are more safely built as direct links. The north-east and south-west connections still have the narrow bend layout.

Building form and road layout near the interchange

Near the interchange the A13 has a 2x2 layout. The A10 has a 2x3 layout. The A 113 has seven lanes, four lanes towards Berlin, and three lanes towards the Schönefelder Kreuz. Both direct links have two lanes each and the old narrow bend connections both have one lane. The interchange was built as a cloverleaf interchange with two direct links. Both direct links first cross the A 10 and the A13 or A113 before the connection to the A 13 are the A 113.

Traffic near the interchange

The Schönefelder Kreuz is used by 125,000 vehicles on a daily basis, which makes it one of the busiest interchanges in Brandenburg.

Notes

References

Karte mit der Lage des Autobahnkreuzes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schonefelder Kreuz Road interchanges in Germany