"Joint Venture Upswing East": Highway Construction in Thuringia (June 26, 1995) On March 8, 1991, the federal government decided on the “Joint Venture Upswing East,” a two-year program to promote capital investments and job creation in the Eastern federal states. Its aim was to refurbish the ramshackle infrastructure there. Twelve billion Deutschmarks were set aside for 1991 and 1992 each. The program focused on communal capital investments, job-creation measures, housing and urban development, the promotion of private enterprise investments and regional economies, as well as investment in universities and transportation. Within the framework of “Joint Venture Upswing East,” a total of 5.6 billion Deutschmarks were reserved for transportation – 1.3 billion of which went toward the federal highway system (federal autobahns and highways); another 2.5 billion Deutschmarks went toward communal street construction and short-range public transit. Photo: Christian Stutterheim.