Mercedes-Benz Museum

What is there to do on a rainy weekend around these here parts?  With three small kids?  It ain't easy, I tell ya what.  Thank goodness for museums.  We decided to hit up the Mercedes-Benz Museum, a big attraction here that we've never visited.

Did you know that Stuttgart is the home to Mercedes, Porsche, and Bosch?  What Stuttgart lacks in charm it makes up for in industrial intrigue, I guess??  Yeah, Stuttgart's not the most charming European city I've ever been to.  

Anyway, we got to learn all about Karl Benz, who lived in the second half of the 19th century, and did you know that he is considered THE inventor of the gas-powered automobile?  Yeah, he engineered the first one in 1886.





The museum was pretty impressive… had four levels that took you through the whole history of the Mercedes-Benz and its greater context in world events happening during that time.  Especially interesting was the dark WWII era where Daimler AG, the company that owned Mercedes, was basically taken over by the state and employed slave laborers to work for them… and of course, all their production was used for the war effort. Then the factories got totally leveled by allied bombing.  

This is the oldest Mercedes Benz still in existence.  Wish I could tell you the year, but I can't :(

I thought the celebrity section was quite interesting:

Owned by Emperor Hirohito during WWII.  Come on, is he really a celebrity?

Briefly owned by Princess Diana, but the crown frowned upon her owning a foreign car, so she had to return it.  hehe.  I guess there are downsides to being a princess. 

 And there was another one owned by Ringo Starr, a huge Mercedes enthusiast.  Unfortunately, I didn't take a pic of it.  If it had been Paul's, then maybe.  No offense, Ringo.

James THOROUGHLY enjoyed the museum

And that's a wrap!  Now, if only I could figure out how to one day OWN a Mercedes sports car.  

Now that would be awesome.