West end: Oberhausen Length 486 km | East end: Berlin Highway system German autobahns | |
 | ||
States: North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg | ||
Bundesautobahn 2 (translates from German as Federal Motorway 2, short form Autobahn 2, abbreviated as BAB 2 or A 2) is an autobahn in Germany that connects the Ruhr area in the west to Berlin in the east. The A 2 starts at the junction with the A3 near the western city of Oberhausen, passes through the north of the Ruhr valley, through the Münsterland and into Ostwestfalen, crossing the former inner German border and continuing through the Magdeburger Börde to merge into the Berliner Ring shortly before reaching Berlin. Major cities such as Magdeburg, Braunschweig, Hannover and Dortmund are situated very close to the A 2. The A 2 is one of the most important autobahns, connecting several large industrial areas with each other.
Contents
Map of A2, Germany
The A 2 was modified in the late 1990s, and completely rebuilt in the former East Germany. All of the A 2 has 3 travel lanes and a breakdown lane in each direction.
History
Parts of the A 2 were among the first Reichsautobahns to be built and were completed as early as the late 1930s. The A 2 passes the A 1 at the Kamener Kreuz, Germany's second cloverleaf exchange (opened shortly after the Schkeuditzer Kreuz). During the division of Germany, the A 2 and the A 24 played an important role as a transit corridor to West Berlin, with allied checkpoints at Helmstedt and Dreilinden-Drewitz (on the A 10) respectively. Between the towns of Helmstedt and Marienborn one can still see the former border control points, which were turned into a museum in the 1990s.
Today
The Dortmund-Lanstrop junction has only been built to give access to the nearby landfill. Garbage trucks approach it via the autobahn, then exit via secondary roads. The landfill is easily recognizable by the Lanstroper Ei, an old water tower standing on a hill approximately 400 metres (0.25 mi) away from the autobahn.
Due to its importance as a major thoroughfare for commercial transit and as a trade route connecting the western parts of Germany to neighbouring Central European countries such as Poland, it is often nicknamed Warsaw Avenue or simply Poland Highway.
Christian Dzida, keyboardist for the Austrian band Schürzenjäger from 1995 to 1999, was killed in a road accident on Bundesautobahn 2 in November 2009.