BUCKET LIST: Mercedes-Benz Museum, Germany

With the motorsport world on hold, and travel bans in place for Australia, you might be forgiven for contemplating a future escape.

Speedcafe.com has worked to develop a list of dream places, events and experiences for fans of motorsport and motoring for you to tick off your Bucket List.

Every Thursday we’ll provide information, media and facts on some of the best ‘automotive’ themed getaway ideas from Australia, New Zealand and around the world.

There is one thing you will need when you visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany – comfortable shoes!

To do a complete start-to-finish tour of this magnificent facility will see you cover more than five kilometres and that’s before revisiting some of your favourite sections.

The theme of the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart Germany is “The future needs a past” and that is well and truly apparent in this beautifully laid out history lesson from one of the world’s greatest brands.

They must be doing something right with almost 10 million visitors since its opening in 2006.

With the world in the grip of coronavirus lockdown, the museum is currently closed, which has sadly affected several planned events surrounding Mercedes-Benz celebrating the 10th anniversary of the modern works F1 team and a decade of AMG Customer Sport.

This wonderfully-designed museum houses more than 160 vehicles and 1,500 exhibits across nine levels with a total display space of 16,500sqm (178,000sq feet).

The building, which is 47.5m high and 210,000 cubic sq metres, was designed by UNStudio ven Berkel & Bos in Amsterdam with its inspiration apparently taken from the double helix of the DNA spiral that carries human genes.

The museum consists of two tours, the first of which involves seven Legend rooms which take you through a chronological journey of the automobile since its inception in 1886 – starting with Karl Benz’s original petrol creation.

The second tour showcases vehicles through different eras in five collection rooms.

While the entire museum is a must-see, the Legend 7 area titled “Silver Arrows – Races and Records is what Speedcafe.com fans will come to see.

This area includes a banked curve with racing and record-breaking cars from the entire history of the Benz brand.

While there is a focus on the traditional categories like F1, Sports cars and touring cars there is also a look at programs like the Paris-Dakar and truck racing, which was huge in Europe.

Adjoining the racing area is “Fascination of Technology” which has an in-depth focus on design and the future.
There is no shortage of places to eat or drink, including the All Time Stars Lounge which is open for three months in summer, while the Cannstatt Chalet is great in winter.

There are more than 50 museum events a year and another 125 customer events – although business has obviously been a little slower in 2020.

Overall all the museum attracts more than 860,000 visitors a year with 60% of those coming from 190 countries – Not bad considering the world currently has 195 recognised countries.

With those sort of numbers they must be doing something right, other than making quality vehicles.

CLICK HERE for a gallery of the Mercedes-Benz Museum

VENUE OVERVIEW