Quotation for the day: Frederic Spotts

Hitler regarded these highways above all as aesthetic momuments.  For the first time in history roads were to be not merely or even primarily a utilitarian mode of transportation but a lasting work of art, in his mind comparable to the pyramids.  The visual element was central from the very beginning.  He once commented how unbearably boring he found the highway between Bonn and Cologne.  'But when I go from Berlin toMunich, there is one beautiful sight after another...'  The autobahns were therefore intended not so much facilitate cars going from one place to another as to show off the natural and architectural beauty of the country.

Frederic Spotts, Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics (New York: The Overlook Pres, 2003) 386.