“Roads Bring Joy”- Propaganda Film about the Autobahn- ca. 1939 скачать в хорошем качестве

“Roads Bring Joy”- Propaganda Film about the Autobahn- ca. 1939

The Autobahn, the German Highway system, is one of the best known “achievements” of the Nazis. Unlike commonly believed, the Nazis did not built the first highway system in Germany or Europe, Fascist Italy already had a highway system by the 1930s, and the first Autobahn in Germany was the current Federal Autobahn 555, connecting Köln and Bonn and being opened in August 1932 Nevertheless, the Nazis massivley prioritzed highway construction across Germany, and untill the outbreak of WWII, around 3,300 km of highways were built. Many of these roads are still used (although re-built) in modern highway networks of countries such as Germany, Austria, Czech and Poland. The main reason why the Nazis built these roads were to reduce the massive unemployment in Germany, by employing hundreds of thousands of people in road construction. There are also some arguments to be made that the Autobahn construction had military reasons; although historians are not in agreement on that point. Nazi propaganda, like this film, heavily featured these roads, showing them as a means of exploring the beauty of Germany and celebrating them as an achievement of Nazi policies. - Subtitles made by me.