The A 1 and
A 2 were first planned in the
1920s. The
interchange between the two (
Kamener Kreuz) was one of the first
cloverleaf interchanges in Germany, opened in 1937.
1930s The groundbreaking ceremony for the construction work on the section between Hamburg and Bremen was completed on 21 March 1934 at Oyten. After just two years, on 25 July 1936, the 71-kilometer section between the Dibbersen and Oyten junctions could be opened to traffic as part of a propaganda event. The construction of this route was done entirely without the use of heavy equipment, instead, many unemployed were forced into compulsory work service. 1937, the section between the junction Oyten and the Bremen Cross and the subsequent part of today's A 27 to Bremen Burglesum was completed. Hamburg (or the former Harburg-Wilhelmsburg) was connected from the south in 1939 by the construction of a motorway bridge over the Süderelbe. On 13 May 1937 the motorway from Hamburg-Ost to Lübeck was opened to traffic. It began at Horner Kreisel in Hamburg-Horn (today the western terminus of the A 24) and led to the junction Lübeck-Zentrum. One year later, on 1 May 1938, the continuation of the route to Lübeck-Siems was released (today A 226). After the occupation of Denmark in the Second World War, a bridge connection over the Fehmarnsund (bird's flight line) and an extension of the Reichsautobahn to Copenhagen was planned. Earthworks and bridge work on the island of Lolland to Guldborgsund had begun in September 1941. This section is now in operation as E 47. Northeast of Dortmund, the Kamener Cross, the second German interchange in shamrock version, was built in the course of the A 2 in the late 1930s. The first cross of this kind in Germany was the 1936 approved for traffic Schkeuditzer Cross (A 9 / A 14) near Leipzig. However, it was completely passable only after the
Second World War, because the earthworks already underway on the A 1 were resting in the area of the cross due to the war. Until 1939, the first 25 kilometers from the cross Leverkusen to the northeast to the junction Wermelskirchen / Castle Burg were under traffic. The construction of the section to Remscheid with several engineering structures had to be interrupted because of the Second World War from 1942 to 1951. Even in the Eifel area was started before the Second World War with the highway. Before the war-related cessation of construction, however, only a short section in the area Hasborn could be completed one-lane. The already planned construction of the line between Bremen and Osnabrück in 1939 could not take place because of the outbreak of World War II. This was completed in the 1950s and 1960s.
1970s Just as the motorways north of the exit Lübeck Zentrum today show, they exist essentially since 1975, when the A 1 direction Neustadt / Holstein was extended. At that time, the motorways in this area were thoroughly renewed: The 2 × 2 lane highway then came from the direction of Hamburg only until today's exit Lübeck center. Here, the highway crossed the Stockelsdorfer road. Today, the highway leads over it; this conversion took place around 1983. North of the exit Lübeck (with this name the departure was opened 1937, later it was called Lübeck middle) ran the lanes to three strips of altogether 17 meters width (with side banquets) together. A structural separation did not exist. The middle lane was intended for overtaking for both directions. The old route was in today's 6-lane route. About 500 meters south of the Schwartauer Dreiecks (approximately where the right lane becomes the turning strip), the old three-lane route deviated to the east and henceforth ran about 130 meters parallel to today's route. An approximately 160-meter-long section of this original route is still preserved in a forest near Elisabethstraße in Bad Schwartau. At the point where today the junction of the motorway towards Fehmarn and Lübeck-Siems (A 226) is located, was formerly a motorway junction as a left-hand trumpet, which - in contrast to today - was navigable in each direction. This triangle was still referred to as Eutiner branch in the 1950s. The continuous route led north towards Ratekau on the route of today's L 181 between the L 309 and the junction Sereetz the A 1. Also this stretch was three-lane with middle passing stripes. After about 1500 meters, the highway ended at a triangular junction south of Ratekau, where the route in the highway (today's L 309, then B 207) ended and found its end. This threading was officially called Eutin as a motorway junction, which at that time was not a geographical, but a pure direction determination. When the A 1 was extended in the early 1970s towards Neustadt, the Ratekauer branch line was cut off from the motorway network and downgraded to the national road. Until the 1990s, this section of the motorway was preserved in its original state. Thereafter, the road was extensively repaired.
Bridge Noteworthy is the crossing of the bridge Schwartauer road: The bridge is still an original building and therefore as a motorway bridge wider than necessary today. The branch line to
Lübeck-Siems (today's A 226) has nothing in common with the former Reichsautobahn except its start- and end-points. These building constructs were by no means intended as provisional in the 1930s, but it was thought even in the future a full expansion would not be necessary due to the lower expected traffic. In 1963, the motorway routes Hamburg-Bremen and Hamburg-Lübeck were connected by a 13 km long southeast bypass around Hamburg. The centerpiece here is the Norderelbe bridge at Moorfleet, which was designed as a cable-stayed bridge. The already planned in the highway network of 1933 and planned before the war route extension between Bremen and the Ruhr area (Hansalinie) could not be executed. In this area, the plans were resumed until the late 1950s. The lines of the new federal highway was determined in 1958 for the section Bremer Kreuz-Delmenhorst, 1959 for the section Kamen-Lotte and finally in 1962 for the intermediate section Delmenhorst-Lotte. The total length of this route is 214 km. The route was influenced by the accessibility of the northern German seaports of Lübeck, Bremen and Hamburg from the Ruhr area as well as possible connections of the somewhat remote economic areas of Oldenburg and Ostfriesland with the seaports of Brake, Wilhelmshaven and Emden to the line. It was decided to line from Bremen first in the southeast and then south. The crossing of the Wildeshauser Geest required the consideration of numerous existing cultural monuments. The mountain ranges Dammer mountains and Wiehengebirge had to be crossed at topographisch favorable places. Something similar had to be taken into account when crossing the Teutoburg Forest south of Osnabrück, but the motorway still has a height difference of about 100 m on a relatively short section. In the Münster area, there was a considerable deviation from the pre-war planning: If the plans of 1933 still seemed to affect Münster to the east, the decision was now made to bypass the city to the west. As a result, the federal highways 219, 54 and 51, leading in the direction of the city, could all be connected to the motorway. While in the plans of 1933 a highway from the Gladbeck area was to cross the later A 1 north of Münster, this motorway connection was realized as A 43 in the 1970s and 1980s and connected to the A 1 southwest of Münster.
South section The section south of Münster to the connection to the Kamen Cross required in the area of the crossing of the Lippe and Datteln-Hamm-channel an increase of the roadway to absorb possible subsidence, which occurred at times of mining in the Ruhr area again and again. The Werne colliery was located in the immediate vicinity of the motorway Werner district Stockum. The section Bremen-Bremen / Brinkum 1963 was opened to traffic, a year later, in 1964, the sequel to Delmenhorst. In 1965, a section at Wildeshausen and the section from Münster to the Kamener Cross was completed. 1966 was the highway after release of two further sections west and east of Wildeshausen from Bremen already to Cloppenburg consistently passable, 1967 to Holdorf. The complete gap closure to Münster was completed in 1968. The section between the Kamen Cross and the cross Dortmund / Unna was completed in 1957. The already started before the war section Wermelskirchen-Remscheid by the Bergisches Land was further built from 1951 and was handed over to the operation on 15 July 1953. Hagen was reached in 1956. In 1961, finally, the gap of the motorway on this section between Dortmund / Unna and Hagen was closed. This section of the motorway is also called Ruhrtangente.
Northern part The northern part of the Cologne motorway ring was planned as 17.8 km long northern bypass Cologne from the 1960s to relieve the Heumarer triangle and the Rodenkirchen bridge and close the ring road around Cologne. Also here already existed in the 1930s planning for a closed motorway ring around Cologne. These were also largely implemented for the ring closure in the 1960s. The plan approval decision was issued in 1961 in three parts (left bank section, right bank section, Rhine bridge). The 1061 m long Rhine bridge Leverkusen as well as the two highways on Leverkusen city area were thereby equipped with wider side stripes to allow a later expansion to six lanes. A special feature in the German motorway network is that the highway between the cross Leverkusen and the junction Cologne-Niehl - as well as the A 3 - was equipped with street lighting in the form of a fairy lights and subsequent single lamps. In 1965, the A 1 was completely passable in this area, in 1968 with the completion of the section Holdorf-Münster then complete from Lübeck to Cologne-West. The realization of the already planned before the war route between Daun and Saarbrücken was resumed in the 1960s, but initially as a single lane B 408th This should lead from the triangle Dernbach to Landstuhl. The section Kaisersesch-Wittlich was completed in 1965 in one lane. Due to a French ammunition warehouse at Hasborn this was initially interrupted and after clearance by the French authorities from 1 July 1968 continuously passable. After this route had been upgraded to the motorway in 1967, the second carriageway was missing for full expansion, this was completed in 1970.
Numbering system In 1974, a new numbering system for the motorways was introduced, the previously planned A11 and internally designated route from Puttgarden to Leverkusen was along with the planned sequel to the Saarbrücken to the Federal Highway 1. Since the 1970s, the highway from Lübeck was extended bit by bit to the north. North of Lübeck was the motorway junction Bad Schwartau in the form of a fork, from which the previously continuous connection from Hamburg to Lübeck-Siems now branches off as A 226. In 1975, the section from Bad Schwartau to Neustadt in Holstein was completed, in 1979 they reached as far as Lensahn, 1980 then Oldenburg in Holstein-South. Also, from the 1970s, the A 1 was gradually extended towards the Eifel. As early as 1971, the short piece of the cross Cologne-West to the junction Frechen was handed over to traffic, a year later, in 1972, they reached as far as the Bliesheim Cross, where they are here as part of a motorway A 14 of the Dutch border near Goch to the French border near Lauterbourg was planned and built. Wisskirchen was reached in 1977, in 1981 Mechernich and in 1982 the current end of the autobahn at Blankenheim. South of Wittlich, the highway was opened in 1974 between the junction Salmtal and the triangle Moselle Valley, 1975, the gap between Wittlich and Salmtal closed, making it from Koblenz to Trier continuously passable. After the introduction of the new numbering system, this highway was initially designated as A 48 and was originally intended to lead from Luxembourg via Trier, Daun, Koblenz, Wetzlar and Gießen to the Hattenbacher Dreieck. Corresponding already established sections were already provided with this number. Between Daun and Trier then a double numbering A 1 / A 48 was used, since the time at Daun a highway triangle for a subsequent route to Cologne was planned and there was some already started with the earthworks for the ramps. But these enormous masses of earth were then overgrown and unused for well over 15 years. Only in 1997, the highway triangle itself and a few kilometers A 1 was completed to the junction Daun, the rest of construction then rested but initially again.
Continuation The continuation from Trier to Saarbrücken was tackled in the 1970s and early 1980s. First emerged in the 1970s in the context of a full expansion of 1960 and 1964 as federal highway 268 or 327 built single-lane and 1969 in A 171 umgewidmeten track sections Saarbrücken-Riegelsberg and Illingen-Eppelborn. Originally, this federal road should continue to Hermeskeil and meet there on the B 408 Koblenz-Trier-Landstuhl. In the plans from the 1930s, a Tangierung the Saarland latter was not provided, the realized planning with the triangle Nonnweiler therefore deviates significantly from the pre-war planning. The section Riegelsberg-Saarbrücken, was indeed developed in 1960 as a federal highway four lanes, but originally had no structural separation, which accidents due to wetness on the winding route were common. A central plank was therefore only retrofitted in the course of the upgrade. This explains the unusually narrow profile of the motorway in this area, which also does not have streaks here. Coming to the end of the 1970s, the A 1 between Saarbrücken and Reinsfeld was completed in sections, was missing only the gap between the Reinsfeld and the triangle Moselle valley. This 20 km long track with two larger bridge structures (Fellerbach and Molesbachtal bridge) was completed in 1983, making the A 1 between Daun and Saarbrücken completely passable.
Reunification With the German reunification, it had accounted for the double numbering between the triangle Vulkaneifel and Trier. Since the section Dernbach-Wetzlar, A 48 should not be realized, the name of this was reduced to the route triangle Vulkaneifel-triangle Dernbach. The already built piece northwest of Trier to the Luxembourg border was renamed A 64, as well as the already finished sections in Hessen received new numbers (A 480 and A 5). On some older signposts, however, this double numbering still exists.
2000s In the early 2000s, both the continuation from Oldenberg in Holstein to the north and the gap closure in the Eifel between Blankenheim and Daun were planned and partially realized. On 20 December 2002 the section from the former motorway south to north of Oldenberg in Holstein was cleared by the construction of second carriageway. As part of the completion of second carriageway, was the previous B 207 on 21 August 2005 to Gremersdorf upgraded to the highway. Since 25 August 2008, the A 1 ended at the junction Heiligenhafen-Mitte. The 3.5 km section from Heiligenhafen-Mitte to behind Heiligenhafen-Ost was opened to the rest on 6 July 2012. The A 1 had to be closed in from 26 July 2006 to 1 August 2006, between the Hagen-West and Westhofener Cross in the direction of Bremen, because of serious heat damage. In the construction site area, the road surface became soft and ruts arose. The 30-year-old pavement has not been able to withstand the one-sided exposure to persistently high temperatures. In this refurbished section, the entire road surface was milled out and re-asphalted. The closing of the gap in the Eifel region was continued from the Rhineland-Palatinate side. In 2005, the highway was even extended by 2.5 km north of Daun to the makeshift port at Rengen. This disappeared in October 2010, when the A 1 was extended by another 3.5 km to the junction of Gerolstein. The most recent extension was on 31 May 2012, when 2.5 km continuation of the expressway were realized to the junction of Kelberg. The complete closing of the gap has not yet been realized due to faltering planning due to environmental guidelines.
New construction There were still some new construction points: as part of the six-lane expansion from Hamburg to Bremen, the new junction Elsdorf was created. At the end of 2010, the junction for the airport Münster / Osnabruck (Exit 75) was released. At the same time as construction, the motorway in the area of the new connection point has already been dimensioned for the future six-lane expansion. Another new junction was built south of the intersection Münster-Süd in the course of six-lane expansion in 2014. It bears the name Münster-Hiltrup (Exit 79A). ==Features==