The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany is one of the most popular museums in the world. It presents the history of the automobile from its invention in 1886 and shows the future of its technology. 160 vehicles and a total of more than 1,500 exhibits can be seen on nine exhibition levels.
Have Valentina Lisitsa play Philip Glass to accompany you …
Upon entering the museum, we took from the foyer a retro-futuristic elevator to Level 8 where the exhibits begin. Two tours are available.
- First tour consists of seven Legend rooms which narrate the history of the brand chronologically.
- Second tour includes vehicles grouped into 5 separate Collection rooms, which show thematically the breadth and diversity of the brand’s products – we will share photos from this second tour in Part 2 of the post.
From Level 8, we could see the museum’s main entrance, the MHPArena – a sport stadium, and the adjacent Mercedesstraße where the first automobiles and internal combustion engine motorcycles were tested.
The seven Legend rooms of the historical tour form the core at one end of the building where the vehicles are displayed under artificial light. The rooms on different levels are connected by a descending ramp where exhibits lining the walls of the ramp tell stories along an evolving timeline. The exhibits are rich in contextual information and fun to read – the museum should make a book out of these materials.
We started from Level 8: 1886-1900 Pioneers. The first exhibit of the historical tour is a horse … ha-ha.
In 1886, working independently, Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz created the first automobiles, and together with Wilhelm Maybach made their business in manufacturing automobiles commercially a success.
This is a replica of the Benz Patent-Motorwagen – the first car with a gasoline engine.
This handcar was the first vehicle to run on rails which has a gasoline engine in 1887.
Benz Victoria – this was the first 4-wheeled automobiles built by Carl Benz
Level 7: Mercedes 1900-1914 When Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz first launched their respective companies – Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) and Benz & Cie. – they used their own family names.
In 1899, Emil Jellinek, one of its best customers began racing under the pseudonym “Mercedes”, the name of his daughter. It was registered in 1902 and went on to become a product name at the end of 1900 when it was used to designate the radically new 35 hp model.
< 40 hp Mercedes- Simplex – designed by Wilhelm Maybach.
60 hp Mercedes- Simplex touring limousine owned by >
Emil Jellinek in 1907
In 1909, Benz & Cie, applied for a trademark which had the company name set within a stylized laurel wreath while DMG created the three-pointed star – its symbol of universal motorization “on land, on water and in the air”.
Level 6: Times of Change – Diesel & Supercharger
In 1926, DMG and Benz merged and started to develop engines for aircrafts and led to the development of diesel and compressed air technologies (kompressor).
Level 5: Post-War Miracle – Form and Diversity 1945-1960
The car evolved from a practical means of transport into a stylized commodity, enabled by the use of sheet metal to form curved surfaces – which were also used in vans and trucks.
Level 4: Visionaries 1960-1982
Mercedes-Benz (MB) engineers developed also safety technologies, such as the passenger safety cell, anti-lock braking system, and air bag.
Level 3: New Beginning – Emission-free mobility – 1982 to now
Level 2 documents the success of the brand at international races – the Silver Arrow legends which prove the cars’ performance and reliability, since the first race in 1894. You can see photos and descriptions of individual race cars at the museum’s web pages – here.
The lower levels house a cafe and a shop for branded merchandises.
Mercedes-Benz vehicles of interest will be shown in Part 2.
If you are into cars, check out our post on the National Automobile Museum (MAUTO) in Turin, Italy (the town where Fiat was manufactured).