Grenzlandring

The Grenzlandring , sometimes written Grenzland-Ring, is a former high-speed oval race track in the Lower Rhine area of Germany, around the town of Wegberg, located close to Mönchengladbach and the Dutch town of Roermond.

The Grenzlandring, to many foreigners also known as Wegbergring or Wegberg-Ring, is told to be "discovered" nearly undamaged after World War II when during one dark night in 1947, Dr. Carl Marcus, town mayor of nearby Rheydt, drove along a more or less straight looking country road. When he passed a bicycle rider more than once, he suddenly realized that this road must be a full circle. In fact, a 9 km long and 6.8 m wide egg-shaped concrete ring road had been built before World War II around Wegberg and the neighboring village of Beeck and completed in 1938 or 1939, at total cost of about 3.3 million Reichsmark. As it was intended for military purposes, the construction had not made been public nor was the road shown on maps. This story today is considered part of a marketing strategy since parts of the ring had been used by US and British military immediately after the war and had in no way been unknown.

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