Robert Otzen

{{short description|German infrastructure engineer}}

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File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2006-1017-501, Professor Robert Otzen.jpg

Robert Friedrich Ehlert Otzen (9 May 1872 in Giesensdorf - 3 October 1934 in Hanover) was a German infrastructure engineer.

He is considered the inventor of the word Autobahn when he was head of the Stufa car lobby group (Bahn being the German word for railway),{{cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0809/1224321805949.html|title=Autobahn has made inroads to German imagination since 1932 |publisher=Irish Times http://www.irishtimes.com |date=August 9, 2012 |accessdate=2012-10-15}} the equivalent of motorway (British English) or freeway (US English).{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}}. When a single high speed roadway was built on the Hamburg-Frankfurt-Basel route, Otzen felt that only an entire network of such roads would attract the political support needed for such a project to be built. {{cite book |title= The Logistic Revolution: The Rise of Logistics in the Mass Consumption Society|last= Vahrenkamp|first= Richard|authorlink= |year= 2012|publisher= Josef Uhl Verlag |location= Frankfurt |isbn= 978-3-8441-0118-8|page= 135|accessdate=October 16, 2012 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=slzBArFATL4C&dq=Robert+Otzen+autobahn&pg=PA135 }}