AVUS

The concept dated to 1907 when the Kaiserlicher Automobilclub devised a fee-financed circuit to serve both motorsport and the motor industry as a test track. A development company was established in 1909, but financial difficulties and the lack of official authorisation delayed construction until spring 1913. Work was interrupted by the First World War, during which Russian prisoners of war were temporarily employed on the project, leaving the track still unfinished at the armistice. From 1920, the remaining road work was funded by the businessman and politician Hugo Stinnes. The circuit finally opened on 24 September 1921 during the first post-war International Automobile Exhibition, with a motor race to mark the occasion. Public access followed, with a toll of ten Marks.

At opening, AVUS measured 19.569 km (12.160 miles) in total, with each of the two straights running approximately half that length, joined at each end by flat, large-radius curves and driven counter-clockwise.

From 1922 the circuit hosted motorcycle races. On 11 July 1926, AVUS staged the first international German Grand Prix for sports cars, organised by the Automobilclub von Deutschland. The race was marked by tragedy in practice, when young Italian driver Enrico Plate was involved in a crash that killed his mechanic. In the race itself, held in heavy rain, two track marshals died when Adolf Rosenberger lost control of his car. The Grand Prix was won by Rudolf Caracciola, then a largely unknown Mercedes-Benz salesman from Remagen, in a private eight-cylinder Kompressor. The fastest lap of 161 km/h (100 mph) was set by Ferdinando Minoia in an OM.

From 1927 the German Grand Prix moved to the new Nurburgring, and AVUS received a new asphalt surface and served as a test bed for experimental rocket-powered cars. On 23 May 1928, Fritz von Opel achieved a speed record of 238 km/h (148 mph) in an Opel RAK2 on the circuit.

Annual racing resumed in 1931 after the Great Depression, with Caracciola winning again in a Mercedes-Benz SSK. Manfred von Brauchitsch won in 1932. The Czechoslovak Prince George Christian of Lobkowicz died that year when his Bugatti Type 54 crashed in the southern hairpin. Achille Varzi won in 1933 and Guy Moll in 1934, to the frustration of the Nazi government, which had declared German driver and car victories a matter of national pride and was heavily backing the new Silver Arrows generation at Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union. Luigi Fagioli finally delivered a German win in 1935 in a Mercedes-Benz W25.

By 1935, average race speeds had far exceeded 200 km/h and the existing flat AVUS was no longer adequate. Racing was suspended in 1936 — the circuit hosting cycling, walking, and marathon events for the Berlin Olympics instead — while the north curve was reconstructed as a steeply banked turn at 43 degrees, built from bricks. It earned the nickname "wall of death," and had no retaining barrier, meaning that cars which missed the turn flew off the top.

The Silver Arrows raced on the banked AVUS only once, in 1937. Because the AVUS race did not count toward the championship, non-Grand Prix streamlined cars were permitted, similar to land speed record machines. Hermann Lang of Mercedes won the two-heat race at an average speed of approximately 276 km/h (171 mph) — the fastest average race speed in history for road racing, a record not matched on a banked circuit until the mid-1980s. In qualifying for the second heat, Luigi Fagioli set a lap time in an Auto Union Type C at an average of 284.31 km/h (176.66 mph), the fastest motor racing lap in history at that time.

No further major racing was held after 1937. In early 1938, Bernd Rosemeyer was killed during a land speed record attempt on the Autobahn Frankfurt-Darmstadt, and the high-speed AVUS was deemed too dangerous for the fastest Grand Prix cars. Plans to extend it south into the Reichsautobahn network also required demolishing the original southern hairpin.

The first post-war AVUS race was held on 1 July 1951 for Formula Two and Formula Three cars, won by East German driver Paul Greifzu. The original extremely long straights were shortened by the introduction of a new south turn roughly at the halfway point, reducing the track to 8.300 km (5.157 miles).

On 19 September 1954 a non-championship Formula One race, the Grand Prix of Berlin, was run at AVUS. It was dominated by Karl Kling and Juan Manuel Fangio in Mercedes-Benz W196 cars, with few competitive rivals willing to attend.

AVUS hosted its only World Championship Formula One race on 2 August 1959, the German Grand Prix, won by Tony Brooks. The race weekend was marred by the death of French driver Jean Behra in a supporting sports car race when his Porsche RSK flew over the top of the banked north turn — there was no wall or fence — and he was thrown from the car and struck a flagpole.

The banked north curve was dismantled in 1967 to allow expansion of the junction beneath the Funkturm tower. Racing continued on a flat layout with chicanes added at the north turn to reduce entry speeds, but AVUS never again hosted a World Championship event. The track held national touring car and Formula Three events through the 1980s and 1990s before the final races in 1998. A farewell event with veterans was held in 1999. Since 2000, the AVUS has functioned purely as part of the Bundesautobahn 115 public road network.

AVUS represents a unique experiment in motor racing venue design: a circuit conceived as both a public road and a motorsport facility, shaped not by any natural terrain but by the geometry of a dual carriageway. The 1937 race on the banked north curve produced the highest average race speeds of the pre-war era and briefly made AVUS the fastest circuit in the world. The round race control tower at the northern end of the circuit survives as a heritage landmark, still carrying its Mercedes-Benz and Bosch signage.