We couldn't leave Germany back in May without visiting the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart. This place provided an impressive look back at automotive history with an emphasis on Mercedes Benz and its predecessor companies.
Here's one of the earliest internal combustion engine vehicles, a Daimler motorcycle.
The internal path of the museum reminded me of those in the Guggenheim and the Hirshhorn -- a spiral walkway. In this case you take the elevator to the top floor and wind your way down a chronological display.
Mercedes makes all kinds of vehicles, not just passenger cars. Tractor trailers, for example:
Buses:
Race cars, too:
Mercedes was far ahead of its time in automotive safety.
Not only did the museum highlight the company's many accomplishments, it did not omit the most shameful episode in its corporate history. There was a display (which unfortunately we didn't photograph) explaining that Daimler-Benz factories were manned by forced laborers from concentration camps during World War II. It wasn't until 1988 that the company paid $12 million in reparations to the surviving laborers and their families.
It's amazing how much we learn from museum visits.
