New Mercedes Museum
Stuttgart will be a better place
Laying of foundation stone for the New Mercedes-Benz Museum
- First building phase of Mercedes-Benz World gets under way
- Foundation stone houses the first fast-running engine of 1883
- New Mercedes-Benz Museum as an architectural statement
- Mercedes-Benz Center Stuttgart represents the brand as experienced today
- Mercedes-Benz World due for completion in Spring 2006
Stuttgart, Sep 17, 2003
Earlier today at the 60,000 square meter site in front of the main gates to the DaimlerChrysler plant in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim the foundation stone of the New Mercedes-Benz Museum was laid. With Erwin Teufel, Minister-President of the state of Baden-Württemberg, Jürgen E. Schrempp, CEO of DaimlerChrysler and DaimlerChrysler Board Members Prof. Jürgen Hubbert and Dr. Eckhard Cordes in attendance, this ceremony served to mark the start of the first building phase of Mercedes-Benz World, which after a construction period of about three years will be due for completion in spring 2006 ahead of the Football World Cup.
“Today’s foundation stone ceremony for the New Mercedes-Benz Museums can also be seen as a positive contribution on the part of our corporation to the state of Baden-Württemberg and to Stuttgart its capital,” said DaimlerChrysler Chairman and CEO Jürgen E. Schrempp.
Erwin Teufel, Minister-President of the state of Baden-Württemberg, went on to praise the Mercedes-Benz World building project. “The legend of the Mercedes brand,” he said, “is an integral part of our state and of its glorious history. Today, more than ever before, Mercedes is seen as a guarantor of prosperity and jobs as well as of the future of our younger generation.”
The New Mercedes-Benz Museum
As inventors of the automobile, the DaimlerChrysler corporation has a duty to develop an appropriate platform for the communication of automotive history and to provide a suitable home for the unique tradition of the Mercedes-Benz brand. “The New Mercedes-Benz Museum will not be an exhibition in the conventional sense; rather it will be a forum in which the tradition and origins of the Mercedes-Benz brand can be actively communicated,” explained Prof. Jürgen Hubbert, DaimlerChrysler Board Member responsible for the Mercedes Car Group.
With displays showing the early days of individual mobility, explaining the history of the vehicles themselves and even affording glimpses into the future of the car, the new Mercedes-Benz Museum will cover every era and every milestone of the brand and corporate history. The architecturally striking building, over 47 meters high at its highest point and constructed on a 6-meter-high elevation, will form a natural focus for Mercedes-Benz World and offers a unique approach to exhibiting the fascination of the Mercedes brand. The new Mercedes-Benz Museum will offer its visitors an unforgettable brand experience, in which the tradition of Mercedes passenger cars and commercial vehicles as well as the fascinating world of motor sport will play key roles.
In addition to conventional visitor support aimed at specific visitor groups, the museum will make use of state-of-the-art media, information and communication systems to provide visitors with an interesting and diverting tour of the 17,000 square meters of exhibition space. Displays arranged in chronological order will lend a tangible quality to the “Mercedes legend” – starting from the earliest days of automobile history and leading right through to automotive concepts of the future. Alongside the main displays there will also be other collections to create a thematic context. These will enable the visitor – according to individual preference – to explore in even greater depth the fascinating diversity of the Mercedes-Benz brand. A host of scale models, engines and other exhibits will complement the 100 passenger cars on display.
In addition to presenting the company’s passenger cars and racing and record-breaking vehicles, the New Mercedes-Benz Museum will also for the first time offer a comprehensive account of its commercial vehicle tradition.
Dr. Eckard Cordes, DaimlerChrysler Board Member responsible for the Commercial Vehicle Division said: “Mercedes-Benz is the only brand in the world which can also offer such a fitting platform for its commercial vehicle history and in so doing do justice to its unique tradition as the world’s oldest and largest commercial vehicle manufacturer.”
One particular highlight of the museum will be the level entitled “Races and Records”, which with its floor space of nearly 1,200 square meters will offer a new home to 40 Mercedes-Benz racing and record-breaking vehicles. Here it will be possible to take in at a single glance the fascinating world of motor sport – from the early days of motor racing and the legendary Silver Arrows right up to the sport’s very latest developments.
The new Mercedes-Benz Museum and the neighboring Mercedes-Benz Center are joined by a connecting building, in which visitors will find a museum for children, an inventors workshop, catering facilities, shops and special vehicle displays. The entire outdoor area of the museum site opens up all kinds of new and flexible possibilities for a wide range of open-air events. The highlight is an open-air arena of over 300 seats, suitable for staging product presentations and other events.
Foundation stone for the new museum also marks the beginnings of mobility
The stone which was today laid to mark the beginning of the New Mercedes-Benz Museum, is also a symbol of the beginnings of individual mobility. The first fast-running engine, patented by Gottlieb Daimler in 1883, has been encased in a Plexiglas housing and will be displayed as a visible element of the New Mercedes-Benz Museum. The fast-running engine is the predecessor of the famous “grandfather clock” engine, which Daimler incorporated into his first two-wheeler in 1885, considered to be the precursor of the first car dating from 1886.
The Mercedes-Benz Center
Construction work on the new Mercedes-Benz Center will begin in May 2004, with the official opening scheduled for spring 2006. The Center continues the concept of creating within the metropolitan setting a space in which to give the full spectrum of the brand a tangible quality. This is where in future new car sales will take place, rather than as at present in the Mercedes-Benz sales and service outlet in Stuttgart’s Türlenstraße. With a total floor space of nearly 35,000 square meters, the Mercedes-Benz Center represents the Mercedes-Benz brand as it is experienced today. The broad product range of the Mercedes-Benz brand will be displayed here in all its diversity, and in so doing will establish the ideal environment in which to provide customers with comprehensive and detailed product information.
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