German Avenue Road

The German Avenue Road (German: Deutsche Alleenstraße) is a tree-lined holiday route that runs the length of Germany from Rügen on the Baltic Sea to Lake Constance on its border with Switzerland. About 2,900 kilometres (1,800 mi) long, it is Germany's longest scenic route. The project is supported by the "German Avenue Route Association" (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Alleenstraße), whose members are the German Automobile Club ("ADAC"), the German Tourism Association, the German Forest Conservation Society, and other institutions. The forestry scientist, Hans Joachim Fröhlich, was its major proponent.

The aim of the Association is to preserve, protect, and maintain avenues in Germany and to restore old avenues after they were destroyed in many places in recent years by road development and safety projects. The Association says the Route connects "the East with West and North to South [and] is a symbol of German unity and common effort of the people of the old and new federal states for the protection of nature."

Cobblestones still serve as pavement on many avenues in the former East German areas. An spokesman for the Route says the average speed is about 70 km/h (43 mph).

The first segment of the German Avenue Road between Rügen Island in the Baltic Sea and Reinsberg was inaugurated on 3 May 1993, progressively completed over the next several years, and completed on 25 May 2000 with the segment from Ettlingen, near Karlsruhe, to the island of Reichenau in Lake Constance on the German-Swiss border.