This blog will expand on themes and topics first mentioned in my book, "The Automobile and American Life." I hope to comment on recent developments in the automobile industry, reviews of my readings on the history of the automobile, drafts of my new work, contributions from friends, descriptions of the museums and car shows I attend and anything else relevant. Copyright 2009-2020, by the author.
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
1939 Promotional film about the Autobahn -- Themes of Nature and the Environment, the Volk, and Mobility that brings Happiness.
How wonderful it must have been to drive the Autobahn in 1939, before WWII and before there was much traffic and trucks to get in your way. The film is joyous -- filled with smiling travelers, drivers, construction workers getting paid, beautiful young women on a picnic. It is so ironic that this ribbon of road can blend so seamlessly into the land. A fantasy in a way, populated with rural folk and urbanites unified by a highway that would redefine the western word after 1945.
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