Word: autobahnen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Technology has a way of re-enacting poetry. West Germany is currently considering a network of Autobahnen im Dunkeln, or highways in the dark: huge subterranean pipelines that will carry industrial waste and scrap to the coast, dump them into the ocean and form new land. "Under green fields, under our feet," writes an awed British journalist, "the thick current of Germany's yesterday will creep endlessly down to the sea." The scheme is symbolic of contemporary Germany; for 20 years, its people have sought to eliminate the rubbish of their past and build anew...
...many ways, they have succeeded spectacularly well. But redemption through hard work, whether prescribed by Goethe or by Ludwig Erhard, has its limitations. Despite the visible and invisible Autobahnen, despite the gleaming cars and ambitious towers, despite the homburgs in Hamburg and the shoulder minks in Munich, despite all the scenes of prosperity, West Germany is deeply troubled...
...police are driving the custom out of style. But in Europe, the autostop, as hitchhiking is known in internationalese, is a thriving student institution. In universities across the Continent, and on many U.S. campuses too, college kids are about to dust off knapsacks and take to the open Autobahnen, routes nationales, carreteras and autostrade...
...looking stoppeur. Neatness counts, since it denotes respectability; so does a pair of knobby knees (male), because Germans like outdoorsiness. The thumb is a U.S. import; native custom dictates an erect forearm and a vigorous loose-wristed wag of the hand. One student last summer became king of the Autobahnen by carrying a sign that said: I KNOW A THOUSAND JOKES...
Europe argues otherwise. In Germany, for example, the Autobahnen are sleek, straight and alive with Volkswagens and Opels, yet the express-train business is booming. "Improved service will automatically increase the number of travelers." says a German Bundesbahn spokesman, and he finds it especially true on fast downtown-to-downtown runs...