Berlinka

The German demand in 1939 to run this road across the Polish Corridor with extraterritorial status and Poland's refusal to allow this were used by Nazi Germany as a pretext to start a war.

By 1939, Poland had already refused demands made by Nazi Germany, including one for an extraterritorial corridor within the Polish territory.

Following territorial changes made after World War II it ran through three countries: the Soviet Union's Kaliningrad Oblast (today an exclave of the same name, in post-1991 Russia), Poland, and what had been East Germany through to October 1990.

Given these conditions, some segments of Berlinka became a minor tourist attraction in the years after the war, as an example of a Nazi-built autobahn preserved in an almost pristine state, carrying very little or no traffic.

A number of movies made in Poland and the USSR that were set in Germany had their autobahn scenes shot on Berlinka sections.

In recent years that attraction has diminished as most of the stretches completed in the 1930s have been reconstructed to modern standards and largely lost their original appearance.

Today the last remaining stretch in Poland that still has Nazi era construction features is signed as voivodeship road 142, north-east of Szczecin.

Along with constructing the motorway, after invading Poland, the Germans also quickly upgraded the main road going to East Prussia, in places paving it with concrete.

This section includes one interesting cloverleaf interchange (54°02′54″N 18°45′40″E / 54.04836°N 18.7610°E / 54.04836; 18.7610) some 34.5 kilometres (21.4 miles) south-southeast of Gdańsk, and a large bridge over the Vistula south of Tczew (54°03′07″N 18°49′00″E / 54.05205°N 18.81676°E / 54.05205; 18.81676).

The highway featured prominently in Nazi political rhetoric of 1939, as Hitler's demands included an extraterritorial corridor—the Danzig Corridor through the Polish Corridor—which would connect Germany to Eastern Prussia.