The striking feature of Germany’s Autobahn is not that every driver can travel at any speed, but that many sections have no compulsory maximum for cars and motorcycles. That does not mean the whole network is unrestricted: in 2015, 70.4% had only the advisory limit, while 23.4% had permanent limits and 6.2% had temporary limits for weather or traffic. Where no mandatory limit is posted, the advisory speed is 130 km/h. Limits are enforced on urban, hazardous, substandard, and construction sections.
The road design helps explain why high speeds are possible on some stretches. Autobahns have separated carriageways, grade-separated junctions, central barriers, and access limited to vehicles capable of more than 60 km/h. Still, driving above 130 km/h can have legal consequences after a collision: courts have found that a driver seeking exemption from liability for an unavoidable incident would not exceed the advisory speed.
The lack of a general limit is the result of political choices, rather than a rule built into the road system. Nazi Germany imposed an 80 km/h national maximum in 1939 to save fuel during the war, and postwar authorities initially restored those limits. In December 1952, West Germany’s legislature abolished national limits, leaving decisions to the states. After the 1973 oil crisis, a temporary 100 km/h Autobahn limit lasted 111 days, but a permanent limit faced resistance.
A 1977 Federal Highway Research Institute report found that a mandatory limit could reduce Autobahn deaths, while also bringing economic effects, and the federal government left the choice unresolved. For opponents, unrestricted driving has also been linked to freedom after wartime, Nazi-era, and East German restrictions. Proposals for a nationwide 130 km/h limit were defeated in the Bundestag in 2019, and another effort to reopen the issue was rejected in 2022.