Sunday, May 12, 2013

Visit the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stüttgart!

by Hasan Karagülmez
Hey all, just want to share my impression of the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stüttgart, Germany. I visited it as part of my roundtrip of visiting the BMW, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz museums. I visited them all in December 27th, 2012, which explains the Christmas-theme in some of the photo's :)

Anyway, this blogpost is about my impression of the Mercedes-Benz museum. I've uploaded 155 images, all of which you can view on the webalbum!

On to the museum itself: for those who've never been there, I can really highly recommend it! Mercedes-Benz have put a lot of effort into their museum and it really really shows.

For starters, you can really feel ans see that there's a lot of love for their history. For example, a lot of youngtimers are just standing there proud in the main-entrance hall, right next to new models. Rightfully so, they're beautiful!
 
Entrance hall of the Mercedes-Benz museum, in December 2012
Entrance hall, December 2012


Right, on to the museum itself! It´s just humongous, but starts off humbly :) After you've bought your ticket, you can take an elevator which goes to the top floor. As you approach the top, you hear faint noises of horses... weird! Does one of the other persons have a weird ringtone?

Nope, when the elevator doors open, it all falls in place, because the noises were just a precursor to what you're about to see next which is...

... a horse!

I don't think this was the horse making noises though ;)

You quickly get to see the first ever car in the world after that though, which are laid out on a rotating plateau. In the surroundings there are a variety of vehicles and boats which have all been motorized in the course of history - showing you how the revolution of the internal combustion engine takes over the world.

  
 


After that, you can dwindle down each department of the museum, going downwards. At the walls between intersections images are collected of what happened in the world, throughout the years - think of the invention of x-rays, Einstein's Relativity Theory, invention of aeroplanes, WWII, the landing on the moon, etc.

 


At each department, models of a specific era are laid out. Being there in person you can really see how big those oldtimers from e.g. the 1920's are! I was surprised at least. You really did not want to get hit by one of those mammoth cars, and I wouldn't want to park one of those in a tight spot either :)

 




Slowly but surely, the farther you come down, the more you'll see of cars (and history) of the modern times. You'll even get a glimpse of the future, with concept cars and such.

As one of the last stands, you're in for a grand finale with an overview of all Silberpfeile laid out for your viewing pleasure.

 
 
 


If you visit, I would advise you to take your time for this museum, you can easily fill an entire day if you want to.
In fact, I did actually fill an entire day with it, and I don't think I've even seen it all!

You certainly get value for money though! :)

Some extra info for visitors:
  • For parents: You're welcomed to take your children along! There's even a bus where children are allowed to come in, as well as some trucks. You can take breaks at each intersection where you can sit, and have an overview of what's to come there as well.

 
 


  • For photographers: The museum is really beautiful but also quite dark! Be sure to keep that in mind. Full-frame photographers might be better off, but I struggled a bit with the 7D and Canon 24-70L 2.8, Sigma 30mm 1.4.

I don't think I've used the kitlens, with Image Stabilizer, but I guess a stabilizer will help.

Also, it's quite a busy museum, so almost inevitably you'll get people in the shots. Next time, I'm thinking of taking a monopod along, and use longer shutter times (hopefully slightly blurring people away in the shot). I'd also definitely take a polarizer along to get rid of reflections in the cars.

That's it, if you want to view all the 155 images I took as part of this impression, visit the webalbum!

 

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