The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart

2011 marks the 125th year of innovation in the automotive industry by Mercedes-Benz. There's no beter way to trace the Three-pointed Star's illustrious history and heritage than to visit its museum in Stuttgart.

OneShift Editorial Team

12 Sep 2011

Each Legend room is connected via a long stepless ramp. The Legend tour follows the chronology of more than a century; the Collection tour serves to deepen understanding of the systematic approach and the many facets of the brand. The aesthetic magic of the Legend tour has its counterpart in the Collection halls’ technical appeal and the great diversity of the vehicles.

The Collection rooms consist of exhibits that are a mirror of experience, competence and perfection across the entire range of all automotive products. According to Mercedes-Benz, the spaciously designed Collection rooms have enough floor space to put up a great many exhibits spanning the entire history of the particular room theme. These themes range from travel by bus and coach, caravan and car, to the transportation and supply of goods; from the “Gallery of Helpers” in the service of fire departments, rescue services and municipal enterprises, to celebrities’ vehicles and finally the “Gallery of Heroes,” inconspicuous but efficient vehicles which did and do service worldwide in everyday life in countless numbers.

Low-key floor prints reminiscent of road markings point to the theme of each Collection and indicate how the vehicles are arranged. In the “Gallery of Voyagers,” for instance, from the arrows of a compass the exhibits spread out into all directions. In the “Gallery of Carriers,” on the other hand, they are arranged parallel as if on a road. The vehicles of the “Gallery of Helpers” are pointed towards a central place of action in the middle of the room, while the “Gallery of Celebrities” is presented on fine wooden platforms surrounded by a red carpet. The “Gallery of Heroes” on the other hand is modeled after a street with angled parking bays.

Legend room 1 envelops visitors in an atmosphere that revives the creative and industrious activities of Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler. The world’s first automobiles, the Benz Patent Motor Car and die Daimler Motor Carriage, both dating from 1886 take centre stage here. Slowly turning in a circle, they receive the visitor, together with a stationary exhibit, the Grandfather Clock, the first high-speed internal combustion engine of Gottlieb Daimler. The working noise of the Grandfather Clock, the smell of a 19th century workshop and the wooden floor create a shop atmosphere, an air of experimentation and invention. The walls are paneled with sheet brass in relief, a reference to the mechanical age.

The themes for the other six Legend rooms include Mercedes – the birth of the brand, Pacemakers – Diesel and Supercharger, Post-war Miracle - Form and Diversity, Visionaries – Safety and the Environment, Legend 6: Moving the World – Global and Individual and Legend 7: Silver Arrows – Races and Records.

At the Legend and Collection rooms, visitors can gawk at and admire at a large variety of Mercedes-Benz cars, buses, commercial vehicles as well as pioneering technologies. For me, some of the most memorable cars on display were the 1928 SSK, the 1955 300SL original gullwing, the exceptional 1955 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe as well as a replica of the 1955 racing transporter which the brand used to transport Grand Prix race cars from circuit to circuit during the era of the Silver Arrows.

For a racing fan like me, it was the final Legend room where I was in most awe of the display of famous Mercedes-Benz race cars including the Sauber Mercedes Le Mans cars as well as the magnificent grand prix and sports car racers from the past like Stirling Moss’ Mille Miglia 300SLR with start number 722 on a banked stage. Legend room 7 transports the visitor to a high-speed racetrack. A long black band of asphalt is modeled after a steep-bank curve and provides space for racing cars and record-setters. From the very early vehicles through many Silver Arrows and race trucks to the Formula One racing cars of the present, all categories are represented. They are not positioned just anywhere: several thematically related racers are grouped together, for instance four DTM (German Touring Car Championship) cars. The steep-bank curve scene culminates in a cylindrical round with an imposing lineup of various types of record-breaking cars ranging from the T 80 world record car (1938) to the Solarmobile that won the Tour de Sol in the mid-1980s.

As visitors leave the final Legend room, they will also be able to have a glimpse into the future via the Fascination of Technology display where past Mercedes-Benz concept cars are put on show.

Obviously, there’s just one more place I have to visit before I complete the memorable visit of this museum – the museum shop where I dug out every single Euro from my pockets to indulge in scale models of some of the cars I have just seen in person a while ago as well as other Three-pointed Star souvenirs and merchandise!