Rennsteig Tunnel (German: Rennsteigtunnel) is the longest road tunnel in

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 ...

with a length of 7,878 meters (4.919 mi). The Rennsteig Tunnel is part of the motorway Autobahn A 71 between

Gräfenroda Gräfenroda is a village and a former municipality in the Ilm-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2019, it is part of the municipality Geratal. It was the administrative seat of the former ''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'' Oberes Ge ...

and Oberhof in

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

. It is also called the ''Christiane Tunnel'' for its "godmother" Christiane Herzog, wife of the former German President

Roman Herzog Roman Herzog (; 5 April 1934 – 10 January 2017) was a German politician, judge and legal scholar, who served as the president of Germany from 1994 to 1999. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he was the first president to be elec ...

. The tunnel was built between 26 June 1998 and 5 July 2003, when it was opened by German chancellor

Gerhard Schröder Gerhard Fritz Kurt "Gerd" Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German lobbyist and former politician, who served as the chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germa ...

. It was part of the traffic project ''German unity'' (''"Verkehrsprojekt Deutsche Einheit"'') and cost 210 million

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s. The German automobile club

ADAC ADAC, officially the Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (), is Europe's largest motoring association. ADAC is the largest club (Verein) in Germany with around 21 million members. It would be more aptly described today as an individual mo ...

voted the Rennsteig Tunnel in 2004 as

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

's safest tunnel.

External links

Rennsteig Tunnel website in German
Road tunnels in Germany Buildings and structures in Thuringia Tunnels completed in 2003 {{Germany-transport-stub