Accel Times had the opportunity to visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany on a beautiful and sunny August morning. We took to the Autobahn from Frankfurt in nothing less than a brand new Mercedes with less than 500 kilometers on the clock. Being early on a Sunday morning, the Autobahn was nearly empty, allowing us to take full advantage of the famed freeway’s lack of speed limits. Let’s just say we didn’t hold back.

Upon arriving at 100 Mercedesstraße, you will see a beautiful nine story metal and glass building that houses the history of the automobile through the development of Mercedes-Benz. The museum is a massive 178,000 square feet and houses 1,500 exhibits. There’s no denying that the museum here in Stuttgart is significant; after all, it houses the invention of the automobile itself.

Working independently, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz’s visions led to the creation of the first motorized vehicles, and inspired others such as Wilhelm Maybach, which together eventually brought us the automobile as we know it today. While Daimler initially focused on developing the internal combustion engine, Benz “channeled his energy into creating a self-propelled” car. Both inventors unveiled similar products in 1886, launching the age of the automobile.

In 1885, Daimler and Maybach completed their 0.5 hp Grandfather Clock engine and attached it to a bike, creating the world’s first motorcycle, the Daimler Riding Car. The following year, they ordered a stagecoach from their local dealer, replaced the horse harness with a fifth-wheel steering wheel, and added an enlarged Grandfather Clock engine with 1.1 hp. That day in 1886, the first motorized carriage was born in Stuttgart, Germany. In the very same year, Karl Benz was hard at work creating his own motorized vehicle. About 80 miles from Stuttgart, in Mannheim, Benz installed a gasoline engine into a new vehicle he had designed specifically for use with an engine, as opposed to Daimler’s use of a stagecoach. Benz’s vehicle integrated the engine, chassis, and transmission, forming one single unit. This purpose-built vehicle with a 0.75 hp engine became the world’s first true automobile, known as the Benz Patent Motor Car.

It would be an understatement to say that people were shocked and skeptical of these new vehicles. After all, horse drawn carriages had worked just fine for 400 years and few people saw a need for change. Benz’s wife, Bertha, grew so tired of the public’s dismissive attitude towards her husband’s inventions that she set out with her sons on a long trip to Pforzheim, setting a motorized distance record and proving once and for all that the technology was safe, useful, and here to stay. To personally back the new technology, Daimler and Benz used their names as trademarks, creating a personal guarantee of quality to back their automobile sales to the public. Karl established Benz & Cie in 1883 and Daimler launched Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in 1890. Wilhelm Maybach joined DMG immediately as Technical Director, and went on to pioneer some of DMG’s most successful cars. DMG and Benz & Cie began the automotive horsepower war all the way back in the 1800s, building more and more powerful automobiles each year, a battle that continues even today among the world’s leading luxury automakers.

In 1899, one of DMG’s biggest customers, Emil Jellinek, began participating in motor races using DMG vehicles raced under the pseudonym “Mercedes,” which was his daughter’s name. In 1900, “Mercedes” eventually became the name used to designate DMG’s new 35 hp model. Thanks to Jellinek’s racing success in the 35 hp model, the Mercedes name quickly became synonymous with prestigious motor cars, and the brand was launched. About a year after the 35 hp model went on sale, DMG launched its successor, the 40 hp Mercedes-Simplex. The Simplex suffix was intended to convey to the public how simple the car was to operate. The 40 hp Mercedes-Simplex displayed in the museum today was owned by American Billionaire William Vanderbilt Jr., and is the oldest surviving Mercedes. Vanderbilt’s vehicle can be seen in the photo album below.

Benz, Maybach, and Daimler went on to build engines for automobiles, trucks, boats, and airplanes, fulfilling Daimler’s dream of motorization on land, on water, and in the air. DMB continued its trend of innovation and developed many of the automotive technologies we use today, such as the supercharger, which was introduced to the automobile in 1920, and pioneered the widespread use of the diesel engine invented by Rudolf Diesel. In 1924, DMB and Benz & Cie began to pool their interests and ideas, and eventually merged to create the Daimler-Benz partnership which sold its cars under the brand name Mercedes-Benz. The new company went on to create automotive icons such as the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL sports car, best known for its beautiful gullwing doors. Follow the rest of the Mercedes-Benz timeline in the video below.

The Mercedes-Benz museum is full of automotive icons, and visitors are guided through the museum’s 1,500 exhibits by on-demand voice recordings controlled by a module which the users simply point at the exhibit and press play to listen. We would highly recommend to any enthusiast who may be passing by to experience this tour. Below the video are pictures of select vehicles in the Mercedes-Benz Museum.

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