Automobil-Verkehrs und Übungs-Straße

The highway is located in the south-western districts of Berlin, linking the Stadtring at the Funkturm junction in Charlottenburg with Nikolassee. It runs through the Grunewald forest along the historic Königsweg road from Charlottenburg to Potsdam and the parallel Berlin-Blankenheim railway line.

While normal for a road, it is unusually shaped for a race track as it is essentially just two long straights in the form of a dual carriageway, with a hairpin corner at each end. The north curve featured a steep banking from 1937 to 1967. While the original layout was 19 km (12 mi) long, the southern turn was moved several times, to shorten the track to 8.3 km (5.2 mi), then 8.1 km (5.0 mi) without the banking, 4.8 km (3.0 mi) and finally 2.6 km (1.6 mi).