Stuttgart

The Mercedes Museum was one of my personal favorite experiences in all of our time in Stuttgart. We winded through the clearly laid out museum starting with the first modes of transportation the company that would later become Mercedes Benz created. All the way back to horses and early buggies to the modern race cars. The journey was one of a kind and featured cars costing hundreds, with a few notable ones being a 1955 300 SLR valued at 135million Euros, and the Mercedes Benz F1 car from the 2020 season. The F1 car was one of the most dominant cars in F1 history and was driven by Lewis Hamilton.

Starting from the beginning, we entered the museum and were greeted by a very large open area where a few sections of the museum were being teased. We went past the turnstile, indicating we were time traveling to the past, and were to follow the life of the company Mercedes Benz. We all pile into the elevator which acts as the capsule transporting us to the late 1800s where the first buggies and early carriages were being made. From there we spiraled down into a beautiful room with the first actual production car from the Mercedes. Along the way, there were facts and information about the time period we were in. For example, little blurbs about Elvis Presley from around the 1960s. After drooling over the early Mercedes cars, there were two options. The first was turning right and exploring what other ‘side projects’ Mercedes did. The second was continuing on the primary path of Mercedes and moving to the next era of cars. Going right we would see early busses and mail vehicles. These were beautiful and I was not familiar with these before. Moving down to the left section, we head down to the era, which were cars now from the early 20s and 30s. These were accompanied by placards that gave facts and details about the cars they sat in front of. While I tried to read all of these, occasionally I would get too excited about what was to come that I would skip a few to move on. The next two sections were a bit of a blur in my memory. This was because my excitement was through the roof. The next floor from the previous had three cars in particular: a 300 SL, another 300 SL, and a 300SLR. These cars are beautiful as well as extremely expensive. After taking a bunch of photos, I glanced at the room ‘side project’ room where I found the former car that was used to transport the Pope around, as well as the car from Jurassic Park. After taking a few photos, I made my way down to my favorite section of the entire museum. This had a lot of the race cars in their liveries. This included a 190E, a few F1 cars, a CLK GTR, and many other pieces of history. This was the section I spent the most time in by far. There were so many different things to read, and cars to appreciate, it difficult to get through it all with our time constraint. After this, I made my way to the gift shop quickly and was returned to the present day, this time a partially changed version of myself, one with more knowledge and appreciation of Mercedes.

Finding a connection to the course revolving around sustainability may seem hard on the surface, but looking back on the museum with the lens of environmental protection, Mercedes still has a decent amount to offer. First of all, a lot of the early creations were train cars, or even electric cars. It was only later that was phased out. This time being removed, however, was only temporary, as there was a section dedicated to concept and electric/hydrogen cars. In fact, there was a Mercedes SLS or GT that was fully electric, which was quite the sight to see. While one may think that Mercedes is a corporation only concerned with making profit regardless of emissions and pollution, they still have taken strides in making the future a more sustainable place. Just looking at traffic found on the road now, we see many Mercedes EQS cars, which are fully electric, with all the luxury and horsepower one of its gas or diesel counterparts.

I have always been very fascinated with cars, going as far as working on them with my family since childhood. Going to this museum did not necessarily make me more interested, but it did widen my appreciation of the automotive industry in general, and I am glad to have had the experience!