Autobahn

The Autobahn is Germany's federal controlled-access highway network, notable internationally for having no general federally mandated speed limit across large sections, though many stretches do carry local limits for safety or environmental reasons. Its earliest sections were built beginning in the early 1930s, expanding rapidly in the years that followed as Germany pursued one of the first extensive limited-access road networks in the world, a model that later influenced highway systems built elsewhere including the American Interstate system. Today it forms the backbone of long-distance road travel and freight movement within Germany and links into the wider European motorway network.