Before the formation of the GDR the highway was known as Reichstrasse 96.
The former F 96 was the longest road in the GDR and a major route in north-south direction. When the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 the route of the F 96 was altered so that it went through Mahlow just south East Berlin and Birkenwerder just north of East Berlin. This section is now called B 96a. South of Berlin was the B 96 different from today's route at Klausdorf Mellensee (both now at the municipality Mellensee) because of a diversion around Wünsdorf and Zossen the site of the headquarters of the Supreme Command of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. In the 1960s and 1970s additions were made to the route between Greifswald and Stralsund to bypass narrow cobblestone village streets and a new parallel route to the west was built to transport tourists to the island of Ruegen.
In Berlin, the road runs in the north-south direction through the German capital. This is the route was completed on 26 March 2006 with the opening of the Tiergarten tunnel under the city district at Potsdamer Platz and the government district.