The Bundesstraße 15 is a federal highway in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is located entirely within the state of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, runs in an almost perfect north-south direction, and runs from the A 9 north of Hof to the

Inntal The Inntal is the valley containing the Inn river in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The valley has a total length of 517 km and the biggest city located in Inntal is Innsbruck. The valley is divided into the following sections based on r ...

History

Previous routes and names

Today's Bundesstraße 15 has its origins in the Reichsstraße 15. The Reichsstraßen were created in 1934 for the

German Reich German ''Reich'' (, from ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty entirely from a continuing unitary German ''Volk'' ("na ...

. The R 15 began in

Gera Gera () is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of ...

and went through

Schleiz Schleiz () is a town in the Districts of Germany, district of Saale-Orla-Kreis in Thuringia, Germany. The former municipality Crispendorf was merged into Schleiz in January 2019, and Burgk in December 2019. Location Schleiz is in the Thuring ...

, Hof,

Wunsiedel (; Northern Bavarian: ''Wåuṉsieḏl'' or ''Wousigl'') is the seat of the Upper Franconian district of in northeast Bavaria, Germany. The town is the birthplace of poet Jean Paul. It also became known for its annual Festival and the Rudolf ...

and

Marktredwitz Marktredwitz () is a town in the district of Wunsiedel, in Bavaria, Germany, close to the Czech border, 22 km west of Cheb, 50 km east of Bayreuth and 50 km south of Hof/Saale. Marktredwitz station is at the junction of the Nuremb ...

Mitterteich Mitterteich (Northern Bavarian: ''Miederdeich'') is a municipality in the district of Tirschenreuth, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 10 km northwest of Tirschenreuth, and 17 km southwest of Cheb Cheb (; ) is a town in the Karlovy ...

. From Mitterteich, it followed today's route to the connection to the Inntalautobahn near Rosenheim. From there, the R 15 went through

Brannenburg Brannenburg is a municipality in the district of Rosenheim in Bavaria in Germany. There is a railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, wh ...

and

Oberaudorf Oberaudorf () is a municipality in the district of Rosenheim (district), Rosenheim in Bavaria, Germany. It lies on the river Inn (river), Inn. Oberaudorf is the birthplace of Maria Ratzinger (née Peintner), the mother of German Pope Benedict XVI ...

to the border at

Kiefersfelden Kiefersfelden is a municipality with about 7000 inhabitants located in the district of Rosenheim in Bavaria, Germany, on the border with Tyrol, Austria. Geography Geographical location Kiefersfelden is located in the foothills of the Alps, in t ...

. After the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

in 1938, the R 15 was extended via

Kufstein Kufstein (; ) is a town in the Austrian state of Tyrol, the administrative seat of Kufstein District. With a population of about 20,000 it is the second largest Tyrolean town after the state capital Innsbruck. The greatest landmark is Kufstein For ...

Wörgl Wörgl () is a city in the Austrian state of Tyrol, in the Kufstein district. It is from the international border with Bavaria, Germany. Population Transport Wörgl is a railway junction in the line between Innsbruck and Munich, as well as the ...

. In Kufstein, an auxiliary road, R 15a, branched off and went to the R 31 near

Ellmau Ellmau is a municipality in the district of Kufstein in the Austrian region of Sölllandl. It lies 12 km southeast of Kufstein and 9 km west of Sankt Johann in Tirol. It is located at an elevation of 820 m above sea level. It was first ...

. In 1941, the path of the R 15 north of Mitterteich was changed. Now, the R 15 began in the

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

n town of Karlsbad and traveled through Falkenau ( Sokolov), Eger (

Cheb Cheb (; ) is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 33,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Ohře River. Before the Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, expulsion of Germans in 1945, the town was the centre of the G ...

), and

Waldsassen Waldsassen (; Northern Bavarian: ''Woidsassen'') is a town in the district of Tirschenreuth in the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria. Geography Waldsassen is the northernmost municipality of the Upper Palatinate region. In the northeast, it borde ...

to Mitterteich and from then on, the same path as before. The part from Gera to Hof was given to the R 2, and the part from Hof to Mitterteich was given the designation of R 303. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the path of the road was changed again. The B 15 now began in Hof and led over Selb and Marktredwitz to Mitterteich, and then south to the Austrian border as before. The part of the road between Eger and Mitterteich that was still within Germany became part of B 299.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bundesstrasse 015

015 015 may refer to: * 015, a telephone numbers in Malaysia, telephone number code in Malaysia * ''Global Underground 015'', DJ mix album by Darren Emerson * ''The Haunting of Tram Car 015'', 2019 novella by P. Djèlí Clark * JWH-015, chemical from t ...