Tourist information boards | From Burg Teck to Tropical Island: The brown motorway signs

That's a question for "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?": Where was the first brown and white motorway sign erected? For anyone who might need to play phone joker, here's the answer: It's a reference to Teck Castle near Stuttgart. That was 42 years ago; the sign was erected in 1983. It was a traffic engineer from the ADAC, Thomas Hessling, who initiated the idea. He noticed that tourist information signs on the motorway already existed in Spain and France at the time. So why not in Germany?

Hessling developed the idea and guidelines together with the Federal Highway Research Institute. The goal, he told the "ADAC-Motorwelt" in 2014, was "to break up the often mindless and exhausting driving on the Autobahn. Keyword: local history as you drive by." To ensure that local history also had its rules, the German Road Traffic Act was soon amended to include a relevant regulation. Since then, "Tourist Information Boards (TUT)" have been registered under the designation 386.3. They were to be three by two meters in size and white on brown to clearly distinguish themselves from traditional traffic signs.

From sign envy to wild growth

Originally, further strict rules applied: The signs had to be tourist attractions and be located "in the immediate vicinity" of the motorway. Furthermore, such a brown sign could only be placed "at most every 20 kilometers" to avoid distracting drivers too much. This, however, soon led to sign envy; mayors complained and asked why the neighboring town's church tower was being considered and not theirs. According to the current "Guidelines for Tourist Signage," two information signs are now "generally" permitted per motorway section; a minimum distance of 1,000 meters between signs is now required.

Some even don't even bother to advertise specific attractions anymore. Instead, the interested driver learns that they've now reached the "Ruhr Metropolis," the "Taunus Mountains," the "Lüneburg Heath," or the "Bavarian Forest." This would have been obvious as soon as they reached the motorway service station of the same name, but this way, they know in advance which landscapes they're leaving behind—for example, the Hallertau Hop Country on the A9 or the Hoher Vogelsberg Nature Park on the A5.

The former strictness, however, has long since given way to a lively proliferation. Officially, a tourist attraction advertised in this way must either be visible from the motorway or at least be located no more than ten kilometers as the crow flies from a motorway junction. Only in exceptional cases can destinations of outstanding tourist significance be advertised even at greater distances. In practice, however, one also learns quite generally that northern Baden's building land is the home of green spelt, and chugs along a good 18 kilometers from the Mundelsheim junction to the advertised "Tripsdrill Adventure Park" (both on the A81).

There's no overarching authority to manage the brown and white signs. The Federal Highway Research Institute only initially specified the standard size and that a sans-serif font called Antiqua should be used for the signage. The individual federal states are responsible for the rest, especially the approval process. And each state handles things a little differently.

Whoever pays can advertise

How does a sign like this get on the highway? In principle, anyone can submit an application. And if they pay for its installation themselves, the sign is usually approved. However, it's usually tourism associations, towns, and districts that want their touristic significance recognized along the roadside. There are also commercial operators like Europa-Park Rust or the Tropical Island water park. Some associations have also immortalized themselves on the roadside. For example, signs like "Lebensmittelindustrie Ostwestfalen-Lippe" and "Bach in Leipzig" have ended up on the highway.

For example, the "State Authority for Road Construction and Transport in Schleswig-Holstein" asks potential applicants on a form to "please assess the tourist significance of your property." The options are "very high," "high," or "fairly low." But it's clear what everyone actually checks.

Some names at least refresh old geographic knowledge, such as the Neandertal valley just outside Düsseldorf. Or they are thought-provoking, such as "Goldener Hut Schifferstadt" on the A61, "Germany's Most Beautiful Autobahn Route" on the A8, and "Künstlerkolonie Schwaan" on the A20. Much of this probably remains obscure to most passing travelers, such as the sign "Mörike Cleversulzbach" on the A81. The answer to the mystery: The poet Eduard Mörike was once a pastor in Cleversulzbach for a while.

The number of brown tourist information signs on German motorways can only be estimated. In 2020, Professor Sven Groß of the Harz University of Applied Sciences estimated that "more than 3,400 of these signs (...) were installed on German motorways." If one only counts the motifs, the number is significantly lower, however, because most of the signs are intended to alert drivers traveling in both directions. Incidentally, the density of installations is clearly biased towards the south: Bavaria boasts more than 800 tourist information signs on motorways, while Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has fewer than 200.

90,000 euros per sign

However, the trend is moving in a clear direction: more signs are being removed than installed. And there's a simple reason for this: the exorbitant inflation of acquisition costs. Whereas 20 years ago, an applicant would have paid €3,000 to €4,000 for a sign, today it's a good twenty times that amount. Signs have already been removed in Straubing an der Donau, Sangerhausen in Saxony-Anhalt, and Wolfratshausen in Upper Bavaria. The three municipalities would have had to pay between €70,000 and €90,000 just to replace one of their aging signs – for each of the two directions of traffic.

How so? Under Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer, the Autobahn administration was privatized in 2021 to form Autobahn GmbH. Since then, not only the costs of the signs have been passed on to the applicants, but also the administrative costs, installation costs, and even a flat rate for subsequent removal and disposal. What's more, the old two-by-three-meter signs are too small for the Autobahn GmbH. It has introduced a new standard requiring signs to measure 2.40 meters by 3.60 meters. And that's why—unfortunately—weathered lettering and graphics on an existing sign can't simply be replaced with a new film.

This begs the question: Are these exorbitant prices still worth it for the signs? Apparently, it is. The Harz University of Applied Sciences conducted a survey on this topic in 2019 and found that one in six drivers has spontaneously followed the brown and white signs indicating a special destination and turned off the motorway. Others didn't turn off immediately, but memorized the destination for future trips. And at least 40 percent would like to see more new signs.