ARAL

Road Atlases

Aral has been Germany's largest brand of petrol for over 50 years and since the mid-1970s has regularly sold road atlases of Germany (or Germany with Europe), generally produced by its long-term cartographic partner Busche of Dortmund.

The 1978 hardback example used a design common to several years and had 660 pages, with detailed maps of Germany, Benelux, Austria, Switzerland, France & Northern Italy, and several hundred photos of tourist sights. Aral also produced an alternative, smaller format atlas ("Auto-Reisebuch") of West Germany. Also featuring board covers, this edition ran to 648 pages. The first half was devoted to single page maps covering West Germany at 1:400,000, with each map followed by between one and seven pages identifying the main tourist sites in the region covered, illustrated throughout with numerous colour photos. The second half of the atlas had 48 single page town plans (generally at 1:14,000, and all marking Aral filling stations), again followed by one to seven pages of gazetteer entries. The rear of the atlas included sections on road signs, radio stations, horse racing tracks and zoos, among others, plus a full place name index.

By 1992, Aral had expanded the format to A4, allowing the number of pages to be cut to 380. Following the recent reunification, Eastern Germany was now incorporated a the same scale of 1:400,000; there were additional regional maps and 35 city plans with associated points of interest (but no colour photographs). For 2004, the atlas was switched to a spiral bound format, with new cartography at 1:200,000. This increased the page count back up to 544, including almost 60 pages of hotels and restaurants. (A companion 368 page spiral bound atlas of Germany/Europe was released in May 2004, but has not apparently been subjected to annual updating.) Only the 1992 version marked Aral locations on all the maps, as it shared its cartography with Aral's sheet maps.

Aral have also sold an A4 softback atlas since 1984, stapled rather than case bound, at a much lower price. Sold (in 2006) for €7,95 as the Aral atlas of Germany and Europe it contains 176 pages, including 55 of Germany at 1:400,000 (with 25 city centre plans), Benelux at the same scale, Austria & Switzerland at 1:500,000 and the rest of Europe at 1:4,000,000. Space was saved by reducing the scale and number of maps of Europe and eliminating the gazetteer elements, but this remains exceptional value (especially when compared to the cost of a single Aral sheet map using the same cartography).

Aral have also issued A5 format road atlases of Germany under the name Tankstellen-Verzeichnis, primarily designed to help customers to find Aral filling stations. The 2001 example (left) was provided by Aral Card-Service GmbH, and had 21 pages of maps at 1:1,000,000 plus 14 pages of urban area maps at 1:100,000. Overall it ran to 128 pages, owing to separate lists of Aral stations suitable for trucks and of all Aral stations. The 2003 edition (not shown) had a very similar cover to that of 2001, but had increased the scale to 1:800,000, requiring 30 pages of maps - by Kobel-Kümmerley + Frey, not Busche. The scale of the urban area maps had decreased to 1:125,000 allowing slightly wider coverage. This map booklet was sold for €1,50, and the inclusion of BP stations had expanded it to 146 pages. In 2004, the same underlying Kobel-Kümmerley + Frey maps were used to show Petit Bistro locations at Aral stations. This is the first known map from Aral that is not in blue covers, and it only marks the 1,100 or so Aral stations with Petit Bistro facilities; unlike its predecessor it had no cover price.

There are also Aral/Busche "Schlummer" atlases that are primarily designed to help motorists find hotels and restaurants. Unlike the other atlases shown on this page, these are mainly available through shops rather than service stations, and the Aral name is used by Busche to provide greater brand recognition, as its own products are less well known.

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Text and layout © Ian Byrne, 2005