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In the mood for some light reading? If so you're in luck, because the good people over at DaimlerChrysler have published a tremendously in-depth look at the history of the Mercedes-Benz museum.
From its humble beginnings in the early 1900's to its record-setting 500,000+ visitors in 2004, you can read all about the museum's illustrious history in the full press release below.
To make reading a little easier, I've also taken the liberty of splitting the press release up into different pages to help minimize your scrolling. Enjoy.
The first collections of Daimler and Benz in the early days of their companies served as internal technical archives in which design studies or patent research could be conducted on the vehicles themselves. But the vehicles were more than mere records of formerly produced models. They stood for the invention of the automobile, for the originality and history of the world’s oldest car manufacturer. That is why, around 1900, attention increasingly focused on them as wit-nesses of the birth of the automobile.
Visitors to the first International Motor Show in Berlin in 1899 were amazed to see early vehicles from the workshop of Gottlieb Daimler. The exhibits of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in the “Historic Department” attracted considerable interest as witnesses to the birth of the automobile. Daimler and Benz had invented the automobile 13 years earlier. The comparison between these first automobiles and the current vehicles of 1899 showed automobile enthusiasts the great advances in engineering since 1886.
The historical aspect moved even further center stage in 1900 when DMG displayed Gottlieb Daimler’s Riding Car from 1885 and an 1886 motorboat at the motor vehicle show in Nuremberg. Benz had a similarly important collection, as “Allgemeine Automobil-Zeitung” reported in 1903: “In the motor vehicle models of the 1880s, Rheinische Gasmo-torenfabrik Benz und Co., Mannheim, possesses objects of great historic value.”
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft also made use of its historic vehicles to celebrate special occasions. For example, the 1,000th engine from Daimler production was presented in late 1895 together with a wire-wheel car and the 1885 Riding Car for the official photo. A plaque placed between the two vehicles from the early days of Daimler production rhymed: (roughly: Long Live the Company! Unity and Godspeed!). Next to them were posters from international technology and engine exhibitions testifying to the success of the latest Daimler products.
The Mercedes-Benz Museum has its early roots in the historic collections of the two brands. For they not only drew the interest of audiences at motor shows with high-profile appearances. At company headquarters, too, the collections attracted high-ranking visitors who were curious about the origins of the automobile. A photograph taken in 1910 documents the visit of an Ottoman delegation to the collection of historical vehicles of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, which was relocated to the new factory in Untertürkheim after the fire in Cannstatt. Despite the losses to fire, the inventory grew steadily; more and more visitors showed their enthusiasm for the exhibits. In 1923 a first small factory museum of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was built.
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