The German Avenue Road (german: link=no, Deutsche Alleenstraße) is a tree-lined

holiday route A scenic route, tourist road, tourist route, tourist drive, holiday route, theme route, or scenic byway is a specially designated road or waterway that travels through an area of natural or cultural beauty. It often passes by scenic viewpoint ...

that runs the length of Germany from

Rügen Rügen (; la, Rugia, ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where ...

on the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

to Lake Constance on its

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

with Switzerland. About long, it is Germany's longest scenic route. The project is supported by the "German Avenue Route Association" (''Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Alleenstraße''), whose members are the German Automobile Club ("ADAC"), the German Tourism Association, the German Forest Conservation Society, and other institutions. The forestry scientist, Hans Joachim Fröhlich, was its major proponent. The aim of the Association is to preserve, protect, and maintain

avenue Avenue or Avenues may refer to: Roads * Avenue (landscape), traditionally a straight path or road with a line of trees, in the shifted sense a tree line itself, or some of boulevards (also without trees) * Avenue Road, Bangalore * Avenue Road, ...

s in Germany and to restore old avenues after they were destroyed in many places in recent years by road development and safety projects. The Association says the Route connects "the East with West and North to South ndis a symbol of German unity and common effort of the people of the old and new federal states for the protection of nature."

Cobblestones Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Setts, also called Belgian blocks, are often casually referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct fr ...

still serve as pavement on many avenues in the former

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

areas. An spokesman for the Route says the average speed is about . The first segment of the German Avenue Road between Rügen Island in the

and Reinsberg was inaugurated on 3 May 1993, progressively completed over the next several years, and completed on 25 May 2000 with the segment from

Ettlingen Ettlingen (; South Franconian: ''Eddlinge'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about south of the city of Karlsruhe and approximately from the border with Lauterbourg, in France's Bas-Rhin department. Ettlingen is the second largest tow ...

, near

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

, to the island of Reichenau in Lake Constance on the

German-Swiss border The German-speaking part of Switzerland (german: Deutschschweiz, french: Suisse alémanique, it, Svizzera tedesca, rm, Svizra tudestga) comprises about 65 percent of Switzerland (North Western Switzerland, Eastern Switzerland, Central Switz ...

History

The vision for the creation of the German Avenue Road began shortly after German reunification in 1990:http://www.adac.de/_mmm/pdf/Alleenstrasse_Chronologie_18316.pdf # 9 November 1989 – Opening of the Berlin Wall between

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

and East Berlin. # 3 October 1990 – Reunification of Germany. # Fall 1990 – ADAC, in its Motorworld magazine, issued an appeal to "Save the Avenues" of the former

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. # Summer 1992 – Foundation established for "German Avenue Route" as a tourist facility and ideal connection between the old and new federal German states. # 3 May 1993 – Opening of the first section between

Sellin Sellin is a municipality on the Island of Rügen, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. History First mentions of Sellin date to 1295. From 1880 on, the town gained importance as a Baltic Sea spa town. After the '' Wende'' in 1989, the building ...

and

Rheinberg Rheinberg () is a town in the district of Wesel, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhine, approx. north of Moers and south of Wesel. It comprises the municipal districts of Rheinberg, Borth, Budberg, an ...

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 ...

() # 2 October 1993 – Opening of the second part between Rheinberg / Brandenburg and

Wittenberg Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the River Elbe, north o ...

/ Saxony-Anhalt () # 29 September 1994 – Opening of the 3rd section between Wittenberg / Saxony-Anhalt and Goslar / Lower Saxony () # 13 June 1995 – Opening of the 4th section between Goslar / Lower Saxony and Dresden and Plauen / Saxony () # 26 June 1996—Opening of the 5th leg between Duderstadt / Plauen and Fulda (Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia, Hesse, ) # 30 April 1997—Opening of the 6th Leg between Meiningen (Thuringia) and Braubach am Rhein (Rhineland-Palatinate, ) # 6 May 1998—Opening of the 7th Leg between Braubach (Rhineland-Palatinate) and

/ Ettingen (Baden-Wuerttemberg, ) # 25 May 2000—Opening of the 8th and final leg from Ettingen to the island of Reichenau in Lake Constance on the German-Swiss border, border with Switzerland (Baden-Wuerttemberg, )

Route

Gallery

File:AlleenstrasseRuegen1.jpg, The German Avenue Road on the island of

File:Allee.JPG, Avenue on Rügen near Putbus File:Ottenkreuz.JPG, Gau-Odernheim#History, Ottenkreuz between Gau-Odernheim and Hillesheim File:Deutsche Alleenstrasse Reichenau.jpg, Reichenau Island

Literature

* Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Alleenstraße (Hrsg.): ''Deutsche Alleenstraße – von Rügen bis zum Bodensee''. WKP-Verlag, Freilassing 2001 (2nd ed.) * Baedeker Allianz: ''Reiseführer Deutschland. Ein As im Ärmel''. Verlag Mair-Dumont. November 2009. p. 131f. * Thomas Billhardt, Günther Bellmann: ''Die Deutsche Alleenstraße. Zwischen Rügen und Rheinsberg''. Ullstein, Berlin 1996. * Thomas Billhardt, Günther Bellmann: ''Die Deutsche Alleenstraße. Zwischen Rheinsberg und Wittenberg''. Ullstein, Munich 2003 (5th ed.). * Ulf Böttcher, Wolfgang Hoffmann: ''Die deutsche Alleenstrasse – von der Insel Rügen bis zum Fläming''. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 1995.

References

External links

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Alleenstraße e.V.

Deutsche Alleenstraße im OSM Relation Analyzer
{{Authority control German tourist routes Avenues (landscape)