AVUS

AVUS at a glance

Location

Berlin, Berlin

Type

historic circuit (defunct)

Length

2.639 km (1.64 mi)

Turns

4

Banking

43° at the Nordkurve (1937-1967, demolished for safety)

Surface

asphalt (former banking was brick)

Opened

1921

Owner

State of Berlin (site now forms part of Bundesautobahn 115)

Address

Messedamm / Bundesautobahn 115, Westend

Track map and layout

AVUS (Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstraße) was built as two long, near-parallel straights of dual carriageway running north-south through Berlin's Grunewald forest, linked by a hairpin at each end. In its original 1921 form the full circuit ran almost 20 km, but by the postwar era it had shrunk to a short, brutally fast layout of roughly 2.6 km with only 4 corners, dominated by flat-out running on the straights. The circuit's most famous feature was the Nordkurve, a 43-degree banked brick corner added in 1937 that turned cars through more than 180 degrees with no retaining barrier, earning the nickname "wall of death" before it was demolished in 1967 on safety grounds. Today the straights survive as the northern section of Autobahn 115, with the historic pit and grandstand buildings still standing beside the road.

Named corners and sections

• Nordkurve. The 43° banked brick hairpin at the north end of the circuit, built in 1937 and demolished in 1967; nicknamed the "wall of death" for its lack of barriers.
• Südkehre. The hairpin at the southern end of the circuit near Nikolassee, connecting the two long straights.

Configurations

Events and race weekends

AVUS hosted German motor racing for most of the 20th century, including the German Grand Prix in 1926 and, once, a round of the Formula One World Championship in 1959, won by Tony Brooks. Later decades saw Formula Two, Formula Three, touring cars and the DTM's predecessor series race on the shortened postwar layout before the circuit closed to racing in 1998; no motorsport events are held there today.

Getting there and parking

The former circuit lies in Berlin's Westend district, a short drive or S-Bahn/regional rail trip from the city centre, and is easily combined with a visit to the nearby Funkturm radio tower and ICC Berlin. Berlin's two airports both connect into the city's S-Bahn network, from which the AVUS-Tribüne grandstand is reachable via a short walk or bus from Messe Nord/ICC station.

• Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) · about 40 min drive
• Tegel Airport (former) (TXL)

Parking

Free street parking is available around the Messedamm and the AVUS-Tribüne grandstand; there is no dedicated visitor car park since the site is no longer an event venue.

Combine a visit with the Funkturm radio tower and Berlin ExpoCenter City next door, both a short walk from the surviving grandstand.

Hotels and camping near AVUS

Because the site sits inside Berlin itself, visitors stay in the city rather than in a dedicated circuit town, with the widest hotel choice around the central districts and the Messe/ICC area directly adjacent to the old circuit. There is no camping or trackside accommodation culture at AVUS, as it functions as an ordinary stretch of autobahn today.

Where to look

The Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district around the Messe/ICC and the wider Berlin city centre offer the broadest range of hotels, a short S-Bahn ride from the AVUS site.

Track days, driving experiences and lap records

AVUS is not open for track days or any organised driving events; its straights are now an active section of Bundesautobahn 115 carrying ordinary traffic, and the site functions as a historical landmark rather than a circuit. Visitors can walk around the preserved AVUS-Tribüne grandstand, which reopened in 2021 as an exhibition and event venue, but a timed lap is impossible.

Lap records

Spectator guide

There is no spectator event to plan for at AVUS today; visits are self-guided, centred on the restored 200-metre AVUS-Tribüne grandstand in Westend, which reopened in 2021 following a monument-protected renovation. The grandstand and the nearby Motorradfahrer memorial sculpture are the main sights connected to the circuit's racing history.

Seating

The historic grandstand survives in restored, non-functional form and now operates as an exhibition and event space rather than spectator seating for racing.

Best places to watch

The AVUS-Tribüne itself, and the stretch of Autobahn 115 visible from it, give the clearest sense of where the circuit's straights and grandstand once served Grand Prix crowds.

Weather

• May-September: warmest and driest months for visiting Berlin, highs typically 20-25°C

History of AVUS

A racetrack built into the autobahn

AVUS was conceived as early as 1907 and finally opened in 1921 as the Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstraße, a purpose-built road for testing and racing cars that doubled as one of the first motorway-style roads in Germany. Its layout was strikingly simple: two long straights of dual carriageway running roughly 10 km through the Grunewald forest, joined by a hairpin at each end, producing enormous average speeds for the era. The circuit hosted the German Grand Prix in 1926, won by Rudolf Caracciola, and quickly became a fixture of prewar German motor racing and record-breaking runs.

The Nordkurve and the "wall of death"

In 1936-37 a dramatic new banked corner, the Nordkurve, was added at the circuit's northern end: a 43-degree banked brick curve with no retaining barrier, designed to let cars carry huge speed through the turn. Its severity and lack of run-off earned it the nickname "wall of death," and it became one of the most feared and famous corners in motor racing before being judged too dangerous and demolished in 1967. AVUS hosted a Formula One World Championship round only once, the 1959 German Grand Prix, won by Tony Brooks in a Ferrari on a temporary combined layout that still used part of the old banking.

Shrinking circuit, closure, and today

As Berlin's road network grew around it, AVUS was progressively shortened, eventually reduced to a short, fast 2.6 km layout used for touring cars, Formula Three and other domestic categories through the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Racing at AVUS ended in 1998 as the venue could no longer meet modern safety standards, and its straights were absorbed permanently into Bundesautobahn 115, one of Berlin's main north-south routes. The historic pit and grandstand buildings, including the 200-metre AVUS-Tribüne, survive as protected monuments; the grandstand underwent a major renovation and reopened as an exhibition and events venue in 2021, keeping AVUS's racing history visible beside the traffic that now uses its old straights.

Frequently asked questions

Other tracks nearby

• Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit · 10 km · street circuit
• Lausitzring (DEKRA Lausitzring) · 115 km · road course & oval
• Motorsport Arena Oschersleben · 143 km · road course
• Talkessel Teutschenthal · 152 km · motocross
• Sachsenring · 192 km · road course
• Autodrom Most · 219 km · road course