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101-632: The road bridge carries Federal highway 10 over the Rhine. It connects the Wörth interchange ( Wörther Kreuz ), which is at the end of Autobahn 65 , with the Karlsruhe urban freeway designated as the Südtangente (south tangent), which connects to Autobahn 5 . According to a survey conducted in the first half of 2005, around 78,500 motor vehicles use the bridge daily. It has therefore been

202-659: A Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron , promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward and eventually led to war with the United States and the Western Allies. In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria , again provoking little response from other European powers. Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on

303-578: A cautious French probe into the Saarland . The Western Allies also began a naval blockade of Germany , which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort. Germany responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which would later escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic . On 8 September, German troops reached the suburbs of Warsaw . The Polish counter-offensive to

404-426: A 22 t service weight. Trains with a maximum of five wagons were hauled over the bank and across the Rhine by a bridge locomotive and returned to a normal locomotive on the other bank. Since the bridge locomotives only had limited power, problems could arise at times of low water if the bridge locomotive was unable to pull the train off the bridge over the steep incline to the bank. During the operation of trains over

505-524: A pretext to initiate the invasion. The first German attack of the war came against the Polish defences at Westerplatte . The United Kingdom responded with an ultimatum for Germany to cease military operations, and on 3 September, after the ultimatum was ignored, Britain and France declared war on Germany. During the Phoney War period, the alliance provided no direct military support to Poland, outside of

606-781: A pretext to worsen relations. On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of Danzig , and to allow a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor in which the German minority would vote on secession. The Poles refused to comply with the German demands, and on the night of 30–31 August in a confrontational meeting with the British ambassador Nevile Henderson , Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland after having staged several false flag border incidents as

707-520: A second track and put into operation on 12 May 2000. The railway bridge consists of two parallel sections of welded superstructures of steel truss construction, both 292 metres long, resting on a common central pillar. The pillarless trusses have a system height of 12.00 metres and have a through truss in the longitudinal direction. As with the road bridge, the pier divides the bridge asymmetrically into two sections that are 117 metres and 175 metres long. Today's bridges at Maxau are

808-475: A secret protocol that defined German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany; eastern Poland , Finland, Estonia , Latvia and Bessarabia for the Soviet Union), and raised the question of continuing Polish independence. The pact neutralised the possibility of Soviet opposition to a campaign against Poland and assured that Germany would not have to face the prospect of

909-774: A similar pact and rejected ceding part of its territory to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939, and was subsequently expelled from the League of Nations for this crime of aggression. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority, Soviet military success during the Winter War was modest, and the Finno-Soviet war ended in March 1940 with some Finnish concessions of territory . In June 1940,

1010-406: A traffic bottleneck for years. The building, designed by Wilhelm Tiedje in architectural terms, is a 292 m long cable-stayed bridge with semi-fan system. The 48 metre-high pylon, which is supported by a central pillar, divides the bridge asymmetrically into two sections, 175 metres and 117 metres long. The steel bridge superstructure has a deck depth of 3.00 metres and with

1111-531: A two-front war, as it had in World War   I. Immediately afterwards, Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that the United Kingdom had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it. In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which served as

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1212-515: A width of 35.30 metres accommodates two three-lane carriageways with footpaths and bicycle lanes on both sides. The road bridge was opened in December 1966. The two-track railway bridge of the Winden–Karlsruhe railway is located a few metres south of the road bridge. It was opened on 29 April 1991 as a single-track bridge and upgraded in 2000 with additional superstructure to support

1313-604: The Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish declaration of non-aggression . The situation became a crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. On 23 August the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany, after tripartite negotiations for a military alliance between France, the United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had stalled. This pact had

1414-689: The British Empire , with fighting in the Balkans , Mediterranean, and Middle East , the aerial Battle of Britain and the Blitz , and naval Battle of the Atlantic . Through a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany took control of much of continental Europe and formed the Axis alliance with Italy , Japan , and other countries. In June 1941, Germany led the European Axis in an invasion of

1515-581: The German Revolution of 1918–1919 , and a democratic government, later known as the Weimar Republic , was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the political right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by the United Kingdom and France to secure Italian entrance into

1616-853: The German invasion of Poland and the United Kingdom and France 's declaration of war on Germany two days later on 3 September 1939. Dates for the beginning of the Pacific War include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the earlier Japanese invasion of Manchuria , on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor , who stated that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously, and

1717-576: The Italian mainland , and Allied offensives in the Pacific—cost the Axis powers their initiative and forced them into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France at Normandy , while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and pushed Germany and its allies westward. At the same time, Japan suffered reversals in mainland Asia, while the Allies crippled

1818-553: The Japanese Navy and captured key islands . The war in Europe concluded with the liberation of German-occupied territories ; the invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the fall of Berlin to Soviet troops; Hitler's suicide ; and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945 . Following the refusal of Japan to surrender on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration ,

1919-695: The League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did little when the former clearly violated Article X of the League's Covenant . The United Kingdom and France supported imposing sanctions on Italy for the invasion, but the sanctions were not fully enforced and failed to end the Italian invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria . When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to

2020-731: The Nationalist rebels , led by General Francisco Franco . Italy supported the Nationalists to a greater extent than the Nazis: Mussolini sent more than 70,000 ground troops, 6,000 aviation personnel, and 720 aircraft to Spain. The Soviet Union supported the existing government of the Spanish Republic . More than 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades , also fought against

2121-627: The Palatine side is problematic in both options because of the dense settlement next to the Rhine: The approach to option II would be a viaduct through the residential area of Maximiliansau. There were two proposals from the Landesbetrieb Mobilität Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate state authority for mobility) for the connection from option I to the west and one produced by a citizens initiative . There

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2222-690: The Rome–Berlin Axis . A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact , which Italy joined the following year. The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allies and new regional warlords . In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Empire of Japan , which had long sought influence in China as

2323-619: The Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers . Nearly all the world's countries —including all the great powers —participated, with many investing all available economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities in pursuit of total war , blurring the distinction between military and civilian resources. Tanks and aircraft played major roles , with

2424-590: The Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border. Hitler believed that the United Kingdom's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later. On 31 July 1940, Hitler decided that

2525-598: The Stresa Front in April 1935 in order to contain Germany, a key step towards military globalisation ; however, that June, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of Eastern Europe , drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect, though, the Franco-Soviet pact

2626-709: The Sudetenland , an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population. Soon the United Kingdom and France followed the appeasement policy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement , which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands. Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary, and Poland annexed

2727-707: The Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria , and Chahar and Suiyuan . After the 1936 Xi'an Incident , the Kuomintang and CCP forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan. The Second Italo-Ethiopian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with

2828-579: The Trans-Olza region of Czechoslovakia. Although all of Germany's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish "war-mongers" and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navy to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded

2929-558: The Treaty of Craiova . The loss of one-third of Romania's 1939 territory caused a coup against King Carol II, turning Romania into a fascist dictatorship under Marshal Ion Antonescu , with a course set towards the Axis in the hopes of a German guarantee. Meanwhile, German-Soviet political relations and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for war. In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden , which

3030-749: The United Kingdom and France to declare war on Germany. Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , in which they had agreed on " spheres of influence " in Eastern Europe. In 1940, the Soviets annexed the Baltic states and parts of Finland and Romania . After the fall of France in June 1940, the war continued mainly between Germany and

3131-709: The Wehrmacht rapidly advanced to the Channel and cut off the Allied forces in Belgium, trapping the bulk of the Allied armies in a cauldron on the Franco-Belgian border near Lille. The United Kingdom was able to evacuate a significant number of Allied troops from the continent by early June, although they had to abandon almost all their equipment. On 10 June, Italy invaded France , declaring war on both France and

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3232-630: The aftermath of World War I and the rise of fascism in Europe and militarism in Japan . Key events leading up to the war included Japan's invasion of Manchuria , the Spanish Civil War , the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War , and Germany's annexations of Austria and the Sudetenland . World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany , under Adolf Hitler , invaded Poland , prompting

3333-479: The reunification of East and West Germany to take place and resolved most post–World War   II issues. No formal peace treaty between Japan and the Soviet Union was ever signed, although the state of war between the two countries was terminated by the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956 , which also restored full diplomatic relations between them. World War I had radically altered

3434-408: The 1947 bridge was put into operation. As a long-term replacement for the bridge destroyed in 1945, a new bridge was built south of the 1938 site at the end of the war. It was built on four electric pylons, which were supported by a large number of steel pipes which had been driven into the ground. Steel superstructures built on trusses carried a railway track and the roadway. After the construction of

3535-466: The Allies were attempting to cut off . Denmark capitulated after six hours , and despite Allied support , Norway was conquered within two months. British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the resignation of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain , who was replaced by Winston Churchill on 10   May 1940. On the same day, Germany launched an offensive against France . To circumvent

3636-534: The Axis war against the Soviet Union, in Romania's case partially to recapture territory ceded to the Soviet Union . In early June 1940, the Italian Regia Aeronautica attacked and besieged Malta , a British possession. From late summer to early autumn, Italy conquered British Somaliland and made an incursion into British-held Egypt . In October, Italy attacked Greece , but the attack

3737-421: The Blitz , but largely ended in May 1941 after failing to significantly disrupt the British war effort. Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy , using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic . The British Home Fleet scored a significant victory on 27   May 1941 by sinking the German battleship Bismarck . In November 1939,

3838-405: The European Axis declaring war on the US. Japan conquered much of coastal China and Southeast Asia , but its advances in the Pacific were halted in mid-1942 after its defeat in the naval Battle of Midway ; Germany and Italy were defeated in North Africa and at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943—including German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and

3939-410: The French possessions of Syria and Lebanon , assisted by the Free French . With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations for war. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany, and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia , the two powers signed

4040-426: The Germans, and the last large operational unit of the Polish Army surrendered on 6   October . Despite the military defeat, Poland never surrendered; instead, it formed the Polish government-in-exile and a clandestine state apparatus remained in occupied Poland. A significant part of Polish military personnel evacuated to Romania and Latvia; many of them later fought against the Axis in other theatres of

4141-450: The Nationalists. Both Germany and the Soviet Union used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, remained officially neutral during World War   II but generally favoured the Axis . His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending of volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front . In July 1937, Japan captured

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4242-452: The Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission after a carrier attack at Taranto , and neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan . Italian defeats prompted Germany to deploy an expeditionary force to North Africa; at the end of March 1941, Rommel 's Afrika Korps launched an offensive which drove back Commonwealth forces. In less than a month, Axis forces advanced to western Egypt and besieged

4343-455: The South Palatinate rejected the planning and identified more than 100 serious shortcomings and demanded improvements. An action plan called Per Ersatzbrücke Maxau ("by replacement bridge Maxau"), on the other hand, called for replacing the old bridge with a new bridge. In order to clarify open questions and to resolve information deficits, the two new state governments agreed to carry out a fact check on 18 and 22 November 2011 in Karlsruhe and to

4444-423: The Soviet Union occupied the entire territories of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region . In August 1940, Hitler imposed the Second Vienna Award on Romania which led to the transfer of Northern Transylvania to Hungary. In September 1940, Bulgaria demanded Southern Dobruja from Romania with German and Italian support, leading to

4545-421: The Soviet Union , opening the Eastern Front and initially making large territorial gains. Japan aimed to dominate East Asia and the Asia-Pacific , and by 1937 was at war with the Republic of China . In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories in Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific , including Pearl Harbor in Hawaii , which resulted in the US and the UK declaring war against Japan, and

4646-418: The Soviet Union and Mongolia . The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron , which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. This policy would prove difficult to maintain in light of the Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed

4747-575: The Soviet Union should be eliminated and aimed for the conquest of Ukraine , the Baltic states and Byelorussia . However, other senior German officials like Ribbentrop saw an opportunity to create a Euro-Asian bloc against the British Empire by inviting the Soviet Union into the Tripartite Pact. In November 1940, negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the pact. The Soviets showed some interest but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued

4848-402: The US dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August. Faced with an imminent invasion of the Japanese archipelago , the possibility of further atomic bombings, and the Soviet declaration of war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria , Japan announced its unconditional surrender on 15 August and signed a surrender document on 2 September 1945 , marking

4949-424: The United Kingdom and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence ; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to the Kingdoms of Romania and Greece . Shortly after the Franco - British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel . Hitler accused the United Kingdom and Poland of trying to "encircle" Germany and renounced

5050-489: The United Kingdom attacked on 3   July in an attempt to prevent its seizure by Germany. The air Battle of Britain began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours . The German campaign for air superiority started in August but its failure to defeat RAF Fighter Command forced the indefinite postponement of the proposed German invasion of Britain . The German strategic bombing offensive intensified with night attacks on London and other cities in

5151-401: The United Kingdom. The Germans turned south against the weakened French army, and Paris fell to them on 14   June. Eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany ; it was divided into German and Italian occupation zones , and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime , which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet, which

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5252-473: The United States was assisting China and the Western Allies, and had amended the Neutrality Act to allow "cash and carry" purchases by the Allies. In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased . In September the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases . Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention in

5353-434: The Yellow River ; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan , but the city was taken by October. Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead, the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war. In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with

5454-405: The bridge, it was closed for road traffic for about two hours. There were five continuous pairs of trains each day in the 1925 timetable. When there was ice on the Rhine, the pontoon bridge had to be dismantled for safety reasons and towed into the harbour. The technical and operational inadequacies of the pontoon bridge – disruption of shipping, low carrying capacity and costly operation – led to

5555-411: The cable-stayed bridge built in 1966, which requires the closure of the bridge in the longer-term. Therefore, the refurbishment is expected to require the prior construction of a second Rhine bridge. In the spatial planning procedure, which was completed in June 2006, option I , which is a few kilometres north of the existing bridge site, was considered as well as option II in the immediate vicinity of

5656-405: The capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens or hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the Japanese . In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang , but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by the Japanese in May. In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding

5757-429: The city of Lebach in Saarland , eastward to Neusäß near Augsburg in Bavaria . The Bundesautobahn 8 mostly runs in parallel to the Bundesstraße 10. After a very short strip near Eppelborn leading to the Bundesautobahn 1 , the road continues at Pirmasens . Because the construction of the A 8 through the Pfälzerwald never commenced, the Bundesstraße 10 has to carry the east-west traffic, though plans to upgrade

5858-403: The conflict well into 1941. In December 1940, Roosevelt accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out any negotiations as useless, calling for the United States to become an " arsenal of democracy " and promoting Lend-Lease programmes of military and humanitarian aid to support the British war effort; Lend-Lease was later extended to the other Allies, including the Soviet Union after it

5959-406: The construction of a second Rhine bridge designated as B 293 . Baden-Württemberg has also designated a replacement bridge on the route of the B 10 for the Bundesverkehrswegeplan (federal transport plan). An investigation carried out by the Landesbetrieb Mobilität Speyer at the request of the government of Baden-Württemberg showed that a new bridge between the old road bridge and the railway bridge

6060-399: The construction of the first fixed bridge at Maxau in the 1930s. The inauguration of the new bridge was celebrated on 17 January 1938 (road bridge) and on 3 April 1938 (rail bridge). The bridge had a central pillar, the structure was divided into two spans that were 175 m and 117 m long. It had two superstructures in steel truss construction: one superstructure, which accommodated

6161-410: The creation of a " New Roman Empire ". Adolf Hitler , after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933 when Paul von Hindenburg and the Reichstag appointed him. Following Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler proclaimed himself Führer of Germany and abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of

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6262-616: The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires. To prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was established in 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference . The organisation's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military, and naval disarmament , as well as settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration. Despite strong pacifist sentiment after World War   I , irredentist and revanchist nationalism had emerged in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of

6363-421: The end of May completed the German conquest of the Balkans. Partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia , which continued until the end of the war. In the Middle East in May, Commonwealth forces quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria . Between June and July, British-led forces invaded and occupied

6464-409: The end of the war. World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the world, and it set the foundation of international relations for the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st century. The United Nations was established to foster international cooperation and prevent conflicts, with the victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the US—becoming

6565-494: The existing bridge. The decision of the Struktur- und Genehmigungsdirektion Süd ("Structure and authorisation directorate south", a regional body of Rhineland Palatinate) in Neustadt an der Weinstraße favoured a modified option I : the link to B 9 in the west would partly run over the route of today's district route 25 ( Wörther Hafenstraße ). A small forest area would be crossed on low pillars, in order to maintain existing animal migrations paths and biotopes . The approach on

6666-431: The fifth and sixth bridges to be built at this location since the first crossing of the Rhine in 1840. The first bridge over the Rhine near Maxau was opened on 25 August 1840 as a floating bridge for road traffic. It consisted of 34 hulls floating on the Rhine, supporting balks on which the road was mounted. It had a length of 276 m and a load capacity of 4 t. Individual balks could be withdrawn in order to allow

6767-468: The first step of what its government saw as the country's right to rule Asia , staged the Mukden incident as a pretext to invade Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo . China appealed to the League of Nations to stop the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai , Rehe and Hebei , until

6868-432: The form of a pontoon bridge built by the French armed forces for road traffic. This was replaced after a short time by another pontoon bridge, which was laid somewhat further upstream. In 1946, a low wooden bridge was added for the railway, which linked the two shores at the location of the old pontoon bridge of 1865. However, it could not be passed by shipping on the Rhine. These provisional bridges remained in operation until

6969-672: The former Chinese imperial capital of Peking after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge incident , which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany . From September to November, the Japanese attacked Taiyuan , engaged the Kuomintang Army around Xinkou , and fought Communist forces in Pingxingguan . Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai , but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push Chinese forces back, capturing

7070-405: The invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia ) by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy ( Regno d'Italia ), which was launched from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea . The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa ( Africa Orientale Italiana , or AOI); in addition it exposed the weakness of

7171-625: The latter enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and delivery of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, resulting in 70 to 85 million deaths , more than half being civilians. Millions died in genocides , including the Holocaust of European Jews, as well as from massacres, starvation, and disease. Following the Allied powers' victory, Germany , Austria , Japan , and Korea were occupied, and war crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders . The causes of World War II included unresolved tensions in

7272-463: The nature conservation associations criticised the numerous deficiencies in nature conservation, problems of capacity and traffic safety on the Baden side, problems for bicycle traffic, inadequate variation of weightings in the assessment system and the division into two procedures with inadequate overall consideration of the traffic and nature conservation issues. This advocacy led to the separation of, on

7373-409: The new road bridge of 1966, the deck of the roadway was dismantled and only the deck of the railway remained until 1991. There were five spans between the four pylons of the bridge, each with a passage for river traffic to pass up and down. The very narrow width of the spans soon became an obstacle to navigation. So on 9 June 1987, there was a major shipwreck in which the pier of one of the bridges

7474-515: The one hand, the study of traffic issues on the Palatinate side and increased capacity and improved road safety from, on the other hand, security against the failure of the Rhine crossing in the case of road or shipping accidents. One day before the discussion, Federal Minister of Transport Peter Ramsauer visited the bridge and described it as "the worst bottleneck in Germany". The states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate have approved

7575-659: The passage of ships and rafts. The construction of the Maxau Railway ( Maxaubahn ) in 1862 made it necessary to erect a new bridge for the railway which connects the Maxau Railway between Karlsruhe and Maxau with a newly created branch of the Palatine Maximilian ( Pfälzischen Maximiliansbahn ) on the Winden – Wörth –Maximiliansau route. For the first time in Europe, this mixed railway and road bridge

7676-502: The permanent members of its security council . The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers , setting the stage for the Cold War . In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia . Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery and expansion . World War II began in Europe on 1 September 1939 with

7777-589: The political European map with the defeat of the Central Powers —including Austria-Hungary , Germany , Bulgaria , and the Ottoman Empire —and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia , which led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Allies of World War I , such as France, Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Greece, gained territory, and new nation-states were created out of

7878-599: The port of Tobruk . By late March 1941, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact ; however, the Yugoslav government was overthrown two days later by pro-British nationalists. Germany and Italy responded with simultaneous invasions of both Yugoslavia and Greece , commencing on 6 April 1941; both nations were forced to surrender within the month. The airborne invasion of the Greek island of Crete at

7979-722: The remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German client state , the Slovak Republic . Hitler also delivered an ultimatum to Lithuania on 20 March 1939, forcing the concession of the Klaipėda Region , formerly the German Memelland . Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig ,

8080-642: The road to four lanes are underway. At Landau , the Bundesautobahn 65 replaces the Bundesstraße 10 up to the city of Wörth am Rhein , from where it continues to Karlsruhe , crossing the river Rhine , through Pforzheim , the city of Stuttgart , Göppingen , Ulm up to Neusäß , shortly before the city of Augsburg . Especially the part in Baden-Württemberg suffers from heavy traffic and high congestion, and there are attempts to improve

8181-410: The significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses imposed by the Treaty of Versailles . Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all its overseas possessions , while German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's armed forces . The German Empire was dissolved in

8282-432: The slope of the bridge: in low water, the bridge was lower than the shores, so that the trains on the bridge had a maximum incline of 3.5% to climb; on the other hand, the bridge was higher than the shores at high water, so that a climb of a maximum of 3.3% had to be overcome. The low load-bearing capacity of 101 t required the use of special, particularly light locomotives, Brückenlokomotiven (bridge locomotives) with

8383-498: The start or prelude to World War II. The exact date of the war's end also is not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 15 August 1945 ( V-J Day ), rather than with the formal surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, which officially ended the war in Asia . A peace treaty between Japan and the Allies was signed in 1951. A 1990 treaty regarding Germany's future allowed

8484-593: The strong Maginot Line fortifications on the Franco-German border, Germany directed its attack at the neutral nations of Belgium , the Netherlands , and Luxembourg . The Germans carried out a flanking manoeuvre through the Ardennes region, which was mistakenly perceived by the Allies as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles. By successfully implementing new Blitzkrieg tactics,

8585-633: The subsequent establishment of a working group called Leistungsfähige Rheinquerung ("Efficient Rhine crossing"), which ended in November 2012. Results of both exercises were published on the Internet. The discussions were held in the Rhineland-Palatinate planning approval process on 3 and 4 July 2013 in Wörth and for the Baden-Württemberg planning approval process in Karlsruhe on 9, 10 and 11 July 2013. The city of Karlsruhe and

8686-746: The traffic situation by upgrading the road. Originally, the Bundesstraße 10 continued from Augsburg to Munich and then past Traunstein to Freilassing near the Austrian border at Salzburg and, after the Anschluss , past Bad Ischl to Styria . This eastern part was relabeled the Bundesstraße 304 in 1940. This German road or road transport-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Second World War Asia-Pacific Mediterranean and Middle East Other campaigns Coups World War II or

8787-518: The two wars became World War II in 1941. Other proposed starting dates for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War   II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939. Others view the Spanish Civil War as

8888-505: The two-track railway line, and one superstructure for the road. The new Rhine bridge was damaged in 1945 at the end of the Second World War during an air raid. On 21 March 1945, an American artillery grenade hit a detonator and thereby triggered the demolition of the bridge prepared by German troops (see Operation Undertone ). After the destruction of the bridge of 1938, several short-term temporary structures were built in Maxau, initially in

8989-513: The war were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian , and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing, and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, promising

9090-475: The war. Germany annexed western Poland and occupied central Poland ; the Soviet Union annexed eastern Poland ; small shares of Polish territory were transferred to Lithuania and Slovakia . On 6 October, Hitler made a public peace overture to the United Kingdom and France but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. The proposal was rejected and Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France, which

9191-512: The west halted the German advance for several days, but it was outflanked and encircled by the Wehrmacht . Remnants of the Polish army broke through to besieged Warsaw . On 17 September 1939, two days after signing a cease-fire with Japan , the Soviet Union invaded Poland under the supposed pretext that the Polish state had ceased to exist. On 27 September, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to

9292-707: The world order , and soon began a massive rearmament campaign . France, seeking to secure its alliance with Italy, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia , which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany, and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription. The United Kingdom, France and Italy formed

9393-614: Was invaded by Germany. The United States started strategic planning to prepare for a full-scale offensive against Germany. At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact formally united Japan, Italy, and Germany as the Axis powers . The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country—with the exception of the Soviet Union—that attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary , Slovakia , and Romania joined. Romania and Hungary later made major contributions to

9494-429: Was also controversy in relation to the planned Karlsruhe north tangent road as well as the connection to the existing south tangent road. On 26 April 2011, the plans were submitted for the planning approval process. The Karlsruhe town council decided by majority to issue a negative opinion on the planning on 24 May 2011. An alliance of around 30 nature conservation associations and citizens' associations from Karlsruhe and

9595-631: Was constructed as a pontoon bridge. As a technical pioneer, it was awarded a gold medal in 1867 at the Paris International Exposition . The new bridge replaced the structure of 1840. Until the Germersheim Rhine Bridge took over the freight traffic in 1877, considerable quantities of the Saar coal crossed the Rhine here to reach southern Germany. This bridge had a total length of 363 m, of which 234 m

9696-451: Was not possible. Moreover, this option was subject to natural environmental conditions on the Baden-Württemberg side. The Federal Court of Audit has found the project to be neither necessary nor economic, because the traffic problem it seeks to resolve is the result of a bottleneck in Karlsruhe not at the Rhine bridge. Bundesstra%C3%9Fe 10 The Bundesstraße 10 (abbr. B10) is a German federal highway. It leads from Eppelborn , near

9797-415: Was on the actual bridge and 129 m was on the two access ramps. It consisted of 34 pontoons , on which 12 balks supporting the railway were mounted. Six of the railway balks could be withdrawn for the passage of ships. The road was divided into two lanes by the central railway track. Depending on the water level of the Rhine, the height of the bridge varied at the crossing of the bank, which also changed

9898-456: Was postponed until the spring of 1940 due to bad weather. After the outbreak of war in Poland, Stalin threatened Estonia , Latvia , and Lithuania with military invasion, forcing the three Baltic countries to sign pacts allowing the creation of Soviet military bases in these countries; in October 1939, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there. Finland refused to sign

9999-417: Was rammed; a vessel sank. In order for the vessel to be recovered and the bridge to be tested for stability, the railway traffic on the bridge and navigation on the Rhine had to be interrupted for several weeks. There had been plans for the construction of a second road bridge across the Rhine near Maxau for several years. The increasing traffic is one reason, but there is also the expected need to rehabilitate

10100-827: Was repulsed with heavy Italian casualties; the campaign ended within months with minor territorial changes. To assist Italy and prevent Britain from gaining a foothold, Germany prepared to invade the Balkans, which would threaten Romanian oil fields and strike against British dominance of the Mediterranean. In December 1940, British Empire forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa . The offensives were successful; by early February 1941, Italy had lost control of eastern Libya, and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with

10201-673: Was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same year. Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno Treaties by remilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936, encountering little opposition due to the policy of appeasement . In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed

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