Chaussee

Chaussee is an historic term used in German-speaking countries for early, metalled, rural highways, designed by road engineers, as opposed to the hitherto, traditional, unpaved country roads. The term is no longer used in modern road construction, but survives in road names and is used by historians.

The German word  Chaussee  was borrowed from the French chaussée by the German construction industry in the 18th century. The French word, in turn, went back to the Gallo-Romanic via calciata and meant a road surfaced with firmly compacted crushed rock bound with lime. Contemporary German translations of the word were Straßendamm ("road embankment") and Hochweg ("high way") and even the roughly similar English word, highway. Around 1790, Adelung complained that "Several new authors have proposed German names but these expressions "do not capture the concept either, and may be used for every other type of artificial way [Kunststraße]." The word Kunststraße ("artificial road") then established itself but, in the main, the French word entered the German language as a loanword.

Today many road names end in -chaussee. Hamburg has retained the term in its street names (Elbchaussee, Eimsbüttler Chaussee etc.), Berlin likewise (Potsdamer Chaussee, Johannisthaler Chaussee), whilst in Bremen in 1914, the chaussees were renamed, following a decision by its citizens, as Heerstraßen (literally "military roads"). In Aachen and Münster/W. the term Steinweg ("stone way") is used instead. This also occurs in Flemish as steenweg.

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