cannons on the Avus, 1935

AVUS stands for Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstrasse or Automobile traffic and training road. Opened in 1921 in the western suburbs of Berlin, it is the oldest controlled-access highway in Europe and until 1998 it was also used as a motor racing circuit. The original layout was 19 km (12 miles) long, but the southern turn was moved more than once to shorten the track to 8.3 km (5.2 miles), then 8.1 km (5.0 miles) without banking, 4.8 km (3.0 miles) and finally 2.6 km (1.6 miles)