Just come back from my trip Sweden to Italy.
Now, what I’ve been most impressed with has been how relatively easy is to cycle in Germany due to it’s huge network of cycling paths, either main and secondary ones.
When I crossed the Elbe at Glückstadt and decided to take a short-cut to Bremervörde, I realized that in Germany (almost) any time that you decide to undertake a certain direction you have a good chance to find an alternative road with a cycling path aside.
I’ve seen cycling stretches busy with local people, students, racers and tourists … and, what’s most important, I’ve seen that cycling paths are generally not a “stand-alone” piece of asphalt but they are frequently very well interconnected to form a proper and actual “national cycling network”.
Now a question:
“When and how Germany started to develop such a wonderful network of cycling paths? Is it possible to attempt to fix a starting date, a specific government law, … anything else trying to give an answer to this question ?”

Thank you.
Corrado (from Italy)