The A9 splits off the Berliner Ring at Dreieck Potsdam, a junction which was known as Abzweig Leipzig before it was renamed just after reunification. The road runs through the lowlands of Brandenburg and Sachsen-Anhalt before it climbs some slopes of low mountain ranges in Thuringia and Bavaria.
The A9 passes the cities of Halle, Leipzig, Bayreuth and Nürnberg. It crosses the river Elbe at Vockerode and the Danube at Ingolstadt. At Kreuz München-Nord the A9 intersects Münchens outer ring road, the A99 where it loses its characteristics of an inter-urban motorway. The A9 terminates at München-Schwabing where it joins the Mittlerer Ring, an urban ring road in München.
The A9 at the 'Bridge of German Unity'
After several widening schemes the A9 is almost completely of D3M standard. The section from Kreuz Nürnberg to Kreuz München-Nord was widening in the 1980s. The parts north of Nürnberg were widened in the two decades after the reunification when traffic volumes on this part of the road surged.
After re-locating the airport of München to a plain north of the city the A9 serves as link road road between the city and its airport. This additional importance is reflected in the widening of the motorway to D4M between Kreuz Neufahrn and Kreuz München-Nord in the late 2000s.
