There was a recent recommendation for obtaining German road maps but it was assumed that you were already in Germany. Not all of us can get to Germany and I would like to mention that one can obtain very detailed maps here. They are wonderful research tools and it helps to make one feel that one is in contact with Germany.
I found my current copy on the Internet. My previous copy came to my attention in another way. A new copy was necessary because of the union of East and West Germany. (We had wanted to visit Klings, the original home of Cyriacus Fleischmann, and it was in the former East Germany.) Additionally, the first copy was so dog-eared that it was time to replace it. (This is the mark of a good reference source; it is worn and well used.)
The map book is in German; it was printed in Germany, primarily for Germans, but that is not a problem. (Some English translations are given.) Here are two words from the cover: Superatlas, Deutschland ; however, you could probably do an Internet search on "Germany Road Map". The company which was selling it is located in Canada and I believe that they sell many items from Germany.
This particular book is at a scale of 1:200,000, which means that almost all roads are given. Some streets in the villages will not be shown clearly enough to be helpful. All of the roads that would take you from "here to there" are given. Seventy-four city plans are given.
The format is a spiral bound book of about 450 pages. It will lay flat and is basically car friendly. We drove thousands of miles in Germany and this was our only guide. The best thing though about a map like this is a research tool here. The book is fully indexed and one can use it to check the spelling and locations of villages.
It even shows the locations of some farms which have been named for centuries, but not all named farms are shown. We did find Unterbiegelhof (roughly shown on the map) with the help of locals, but Kolmbach required the help of a native German who had access to a German ordinance map.
One of the shortcomings of the book is that it does not define the state boundaries clearly enough. The old boundaries, for example, of Baden are not shown. In this connection, the LDS on-line library research is helpful, but it uses the boundaries of about 1872.
The book is given in so much detail that one must be careful in driving because any one page has a very limited geographical area. Before you are really aware of it, you will be on another page.
(14 Nov 05)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.