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Mercedes-Benz Museum

Stuttgart, Germany

Mercedes-Benz Museum Untertürkheim, Stuttgart

ABOVE: The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Untertürkheim with the city of Stuttgart behind. INSET BELOW: A Mercedes-Benz 300SL gullwing coupe, early automobiles, a Mercedes sport-utility vehicle from Jurassic Park, and a Wunder Baum sample from the museum's "Extras" collection.

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Mercedes-Benz Museum and 300SL gullwing coupeMercedes-Benz can claim the longest history of any automotive brand: It traces its roots back to the three-wheeled Karl Benz Patent Motorwagen of 1886 and Gottlieb Daimler's horseless carriage of the same year.

Today, in the German city where the auto industry was born, M-B wows domestic and foreign visitors with the spectacular Mercedes-Benz Museum, which claims to be "the only museum in the world able to present the 120-year history of the automotive industry from day one."

Mercedes-Benz Museum banked race carsThe current building replaces a museum from 1961 that attracted some 500,000 visitors per year. It's a remarkable structure for many reasons, including the techniques that were used to design and build the cloverleaf-inspired building with its complex geometrical shapes, "double helix" interior layout, and 1,800 triangular panes of glass (no two of which are identical).

What you'll see:

When you visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum, you'll enter a large atrium with three elevators that run along exposed tracks on the concrete walls.

During your ride to the top floor, you'll view projected automotive video clips on the atrium's concrete walls. (The images are projected from the elevators, so they ride up with you to the top floor.)

photoOn the ninth or uppermost level, you'll have a choice between two routes: The chronolological or "Legend" route takes you though 120 years of Mercedes-Benz automotive history, while the other, with its "Collection" exhibits, displays passenger cars, buses, and trucks by category or function (such as travel, freight hauling, and emergency services).

Jurassic Car 'Lost World' license plate, Mercedes-Benz MuseumThe two routes intersect at each level, which means that--for example--you could begin by following the chronological "Legend" route and cross to a "Collection" room on each level as you followed the gently spiraling ramp downhill.

(If this sounds complicated, don't worry; seeing the entire museum is much simpler than it sounds, though you should plan on spending at least two hours, and preferably half a day, to sample the museum's full range of exhibits.)

You needn't be a car buff to enjoy the Mercedes-Benz Museum: The exhibits include interesting tidbits of social and political history, celebrity cars (such as the Jurassic Park "Lost World" sport-utility vehicle and John Paul II's "Popemobile"), and video terminals.

Wunder Baum, Mercedes-Benz MuseumThe 33 "Extras" add touches of intrigue, intellectual stimulation, or whimsy. (For example, there's a display for the Wunder Baum pine-tree air freshener, shown at right, which was invented in 1951.)

The Mercedes-Benz Museum's exhibit labels are among the best I've seen in any museum, and audio guides are offered in eight languages, with special children's audio texts available on request.

Visitor information:

Mercedes-Benz Museum with vintage car

ABOVE: A vintage Mercedes-Benz car outside the museum. INSET BELOW: Gottlieb Daimler's "Reitwagen" motorcycle, an Argentianian bus, a sign on a retired  taxi from Porto, Portugal, and the Mercedes-Benz Center next door.

Gottfried Daimler's 'Reitwagen' motorcycleLocation and directions. The Mercedes-Benz Museum is part of the Mercedes-Benz campus in Untertürkheim, just across the Neckar River from Stuttgart's city center.

From the Hauptbahnhof or main railroad station in Stuttgart, take the S1 subway train two stops to "Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion." Follow the signs to the museum, which is across Mercedesstrasse and a few meters down the road from the football stadium.

For more detailed instructions on how to reach the museum by car, by train, or from Stuttgart Airport, see our page of directions to the Mercedes-Benz Museum.

Argentinian bus, Mercedes-Benz MuseumOpening times and admission. Click the Mercedes-Benz Museum link below and scroll down for opening times, ticket prices, and other information.

Accessibility. The Mercedes-Benz Museum was designed to meet or exceed 21st Century accessibility standards.

Porto taxi signShops. The shops on the lower level of the museum have souvenirs, auto accessories, car models, logo wear, toys, books, etc. for visitors of all ages.

(If you want to buy a restored classic car as a memento, skip the shops and head directly to the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center a few kilometers down the road.)

Restaurants. The museum has a very pleasant bistro, a full-service restaurant, a bar with an outdoor terrace in nice weather, and a café.

The Mercedes-Benz Center

Mercedes-Benz Centre, StuttgartAre you looking for a new car? Do you just want to look at new cars? If so, the Mercedes-Benz Center (not to be confused with the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center), which is connected to the museum by an 80-meter passage, is worth a peek.

The Mercedes-Benz Center is a cross between a World's Fair pavilion and a car dealership, with 130 examples of current vehicles on display. It also has regularly changing exhibitions on research, car design, safety, etc. If you've picked up a new Mercedes during your trip, you can get it tweaked or tuned in one of the dealership's 16 service bays.

Related Web links

Mercedes-Benz Museum
The museum's attractive Web site has a virtual tour, visiting hours and ticket prices, and other useful information.

Gottlieb Daimler Memorial photoAllow time for a side trip to the nearby Gottlieb Daimler Memorial, where the inventor of the modern internal-combustion gasoline engine pioneered a "universal motor" for horseless carriages, the world's first motorcycle, and the world's first motorboat.

(The greenhouse-workshop is located in the Kurpark of Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, which you can easily reach by car or public transportation from the city center.)

Stuttgart Marketing photoRegion Stuttgart
Use the Motor Stadt's official tourism site to plan your trip, book a hotel, buy tickets for entertainment and sports events, etc. Stuttgart is a surprising city in many ways, with attractions that range from thriving shops in Germany's longest pedestrian zone to vineyards, wine and beer festivals, mineral baths, and the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen.

Stuttgart photoStuttgart is also the capital of Baden-Württemberg ("the sunny side of Germany") and is a port of call for cruise vessels on the Neckar River, which runs past the city center.

If you come during Advent, don't miss the Stuttgart Christmas Market, which is said to be one of the largest in Europe.

More photos:

Mercedes-Benz Museum architecture

The Mercedes-Benz Museum opened in May, 2006. Its innovative design uses techniques that were developed for bridge-building.

Mercedes-Benz museum atrium

Elevators climb the concrete walls of the museum's atrium. Automotive movie clips are projected during the ride up, giving you a foretaste of the Mercedes-Benz Museum experience.

Mercedes-Benz Museum exhibit

From the museum's eighth or top floor, you can walk down ramps that give a choice of two tour routes: the "Legend" route (showing the development of the autombile) and the "Collection Route" (with vehicles and other exhibits grouped by function).

photo

These two vehicles are from the Legend 1 collection, "Pioneers -- The Invention of the Autombile, 1886 to 1900." The two cars in the photo are Karl Benz's "Velo" (1894) and the earlier Benz Patent Motorwagen (1886).

Vintage buses and cars, Mercedes-Benz Museum

Vintage vehicles, Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart

Vehicles on display range from sports and passenger cars to trucks and buses (among them, the Bundesrepublik Deutschland Weltmeisterschaft football-team bus behind the vintage roadster in the picture above).

Racing cars, Mercedes-Benz Museum Stuttgart

Mercedes-Benz has a long racing tradition, and race cars from different eras are displayed on a simulated track.

Next page: Directions to the museum (by train, air, or car)

Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart:
Mercedes-Benz Museum
Directions to the museum (by train, air, or car)
More Mercedes-Benz and Stuttgart articles:
Gottlieb Daimler Memorial
Mercedes-Benz Classic Center
Straßenbahnwelt Stuttgart (Stuttgart Tram Museum)

About the author:

Durant Imboden photo.Durant Imboden is a professional travel writer, book author, and editor who focuses on European cities and transportation.

After 4-1/2 years of covering European travel topics for About.com, Durant and Cheryl Imboden co-founded Europe for Visitors (now including Germany for Visitors) in 2001. The site has earned "Best of the Web" honors from Forbes and The Washington Post.

For more information, see About Europe for Visitors, press clippings, and reader testimonials.

Photos 1,2,3,7,11,14-20 copyright © Mercedes-Benz.

 

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