Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Acknowledgments
- Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Setting the Stage – The Dawn of the Spirit of Geneva, 1898-1921
- 3 Roads to Europe – Albert Thomas’ European Public Works, 1929-1937
- 4 Driving Europe – The League of Nations Road Committee, 1921-1938
- 5 Setting the stage – The Parade of Organizations, 1942-1953
- 6 Roads to Europe – The E-road Network, 1950-2007
- 7 Driving Europe – The Operation of Europe’s Roads, 1949-1960
- 8 Conclusion
- 9 Epilogue – All Quiet in Brussels?
- Bibliography
- Summary
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Tables and Figures
4 - Driving Europe – The League of Nations Road Committee, 1921-1938
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2021
- Frontmatter
- Acknowledgments
- Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Setting the Stage – The Dawn of the Spirit of Geneva, 1898-1921
- 3 Roads to Europe – Albert Thomas’ European Public Works, 1929-1937
- 4 Driving Europe – The League of Nations Road Committee, 1921-1938
- 5 Setting the stage – The Parade of Organizations, 1942-1953
- 6 Roads to Europe – The E-road Network, 1950-2007
- 7 Driving Europe – The Operation of Europe’s Roads, 1949-1960
- 8 Conclusion
- 9 Epilogue – All Quiet in Brussels?
- Bibliography
- Summary
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Tables and Figures
Summary
Making the European tourist
“Allemand? Anglais? Italien? Francais? Sur la route, non. Automobiliste.”
L’Européen (1929)
Driving a car made motorists transcend their national identity. Motorized traveling created a certain fraternity among motorists. Such fraternal bonds fitted perfectly with the vision of L’Européen, from the pages of which the quote above has been taken. L’Européen was one of several well-read publications pertaining to the blossoming Europeanist press of the Interbellum. The Parisian weekly review presented its public with an essentially economic view of Europe interlarded with political analyses and cultural articles. The weekly was tailored towards an elite public of whom a high percentage owned or was closely familiar with the automobile.
In 1930 the journal started dedicating its final page to “L’Européen et le tourisme.” According to the magazine tourists should not simply indulge in a pleasurable leisure activity: through thorough prior preparation and planning they should turn their trip into a methodical intellectual endeavor. The Union pour le Tourisme Européen, an organization filling large chunks of the page, suggested the right itineraries for l’Européen's readership. It initiated organized tours such as the Voyage d’Art et d’Amitié en Europe to Italy, which it portrayed as the cradle of European civilization. In short, being a good European started with exploring the continent as a tourist, or:
“le tourisme européen (…) c’est un sport mis au service d’une idée, c’est l’union des Européens par le tourisme”
What better way to explore Europe than touring the continent by car? Certainly for L’Européen's elite readership car ownership was much more common than among most sections of society. The popularity of automobile tourism increased manifold in the course of the Interbellum. In Switzerland, a popular destination country, the entry of touring automobiles quintupled from 7,284 in 1922 to 36,380 in 1925, jumping to 167,463 in 1930. Although the 1930s in general were a period of economic crisis, there are indications that overall automobile traffic continued to grow. Dutch traffic censuses from 1935 and 1938 provide data on cars’ nationality signs at twenty-eight counting posts equally divided between the borders with Belgium and Germany (see Table 4.1).
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- Driving EuropeBuilding Europe on Roads in the Twentieth Century (Technology and Europe History) (Volume 3), pp. 121 - 158Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2009