The Mercedes Museum is among my favourite museums. It is arguably the best Factory museum I ever have seen, and it is on my podium of the best museums in the world. Museums can vary so extensively that I would rather not rank the top three now, as the Mercedes Museum could finish from first to third depending you are looking for in a car museum.
I managed to revisit the Museum twice since 2017, and I noticed that the permanent exhibition remained fairly constant. Only a few cars changed in the main halls, but the main themes remained. To be fair this is true to many A-listed museums, and Mercedes also arranges temporary exhibitions to commemorate anniversaries or honour a particular thematic. In my complete review from 2018, the AMG anniversary exhibition was such a temporary exhibition. During my visit last month, the Museum had an exhibition dedicated to cars owned by celebrities, royalties and politicians (well, in the latter case the state of course).
The exhibition kicks off with a 19th-century car, as already the very first buyer of a vehicle from Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was a royalty: the Sultan of Morocco chose an 1892 Daimler motor car.
This was the first automobile model sold by Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in 1892. Such a car was purchased by Moulay Hassan I, the Sultan of Morocco from 1873 to 1894. He was the first person to buy a DMG motor car and the first monarch to own a gasoline-engined automobile, but as the exhibition illustrates, not the last.
The second eldest car is a Mercedes-Benz 770 Grand Mercedes cabriolet F, that was driven by the former German Emperor Wilhelm II during his exile in the Netherlands. Instead of the Mercedes star, the coat of arms of the Hohenzollern family adorns the radiator.
The red Mercedes-Benz 770 Grand Mercedes Pullman limousine also belonged to a royalty, as it was delivered to the Japanese Emperor Hirohito in 1935. A particular feature of this Pullman limousine is the special protection by steel armour in the roof and doors and the special glazing, as thick as a finger, for the side windows, the rear screen and the partition.
Jumping one car in the timeline, we stick to the statesman limos. In fact the mother of all statesman limos, the Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman state limousine. This fully armoured state limousine with a raised roof was produced in 1965 as a unique specimen for the company’s own car fleet. As a company car, it carried kings, chancellors and presidents on state visits for more than 30 years.
The luxurious Pullman was not the only limo from this period, as it was paired with a Mercedes-Benz 300 so iconic that the model is often referred to as the Adenauer Mercedes. Well, this is THE Adenauer Mercedes, as this Mercedes-Benz 300 was Konrad Adenauer’s last official vehicle.
He purchased his former company car from the Federal Chancellery in 1963, shortly before his term of office ended, and drove it until he passed away in 1967. It was the sixth 300 model since 1951 in which Adenauer had himself chauffeured, which is why people identified it with the Chancellor and called it the Adenauer Mercedes.
Moving onto the sportier cars, the first coupé of the exhibition was used by a spaceman, although you would not guess from its unrestored condition. The Mercedes-Benz 190 SL was bought and driven by NASA astronaut David Randolph Scott, who was the seventh spaceman to set foot on the moon in 1971. He purchased the iconic roadster on 2 March 1959 as new and owned it until August 2004.
The next Mercedes-Benz 500 SL from 1988 was not just owned by a movie star (Hardy Krueger), but the car itself was often shown in movies and TV series. The for those not much into German culture, Hardy Krueger was the guy who dumped the future wife of Niki Lauda in the movie Rush. This the only thing I can recall about him, but he was undoubtedly a celebrity of its time. Sports cars of the 107 series, which included the exhibited 500 SL, prominently featured in movies like American Gigolo and Beverly Hills Cop as well as in TV series like Dallas and Hart to Hart.
For the next coupé in the timeline, we return to the royalties as the 1991 Mercedes-Benz 500 SL was owned by Lady Diana. The wife of the Prince of Wales thus became the first member of the royal house of Windsor-Mountbatten to drive a foreign car privately. Still, due to the political turmoil the acquisition resulted, she had to relinquish the vehicle.
The Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.3 may have four doors, but nobody will question its sports aspirations. The 1993 black Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.3 was ordered by the Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage. It was equipped with AMG Drivers Package and dark-tinted windows.
The newest roadster of the exhibition is a 2006 Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG with AMG Performance package. It was owned by German national footballer Lukas Podolski, who bought it just after the football World Cup in Germany.
The exhibition also showcases a movie car with full makeup, the Mercedes-Benz ML 320 from the Jurassic Park franchise. The car played a supporting role in Steven Spielberg’s movie Lost World, the sequel to the box-office hit Jurassic Park.
The latest addition is a Mercedes-Benz CLA StreetStyle designed by German rapper Cro. In 2015, he transformed a Mercedes-Benz CLA into a work of art, by using spray cans and paint. The result is not bad and reminded me of the 190E of the Louwman Museum pained by Karel Appel.
The last one is a real giant, the official touring bus of the German football team. For football’s 1974 World Cup in the Federal Republic of Germany, Mercedes-Benz provided a fully equipped Mercedes-Benz O 302 touring coaches to the 16 participating nations.
All team buses were painted yellow and bore the name and the flag of each country. This O 302 is a replica of the bus used by the West German team.
This is the most interactive item of the temporary exhibition that visitors can walkthrough.
Finally, a car with a certified absence was the Mercedes-Benz 230 G popemobile. This car was moved to another, even more temporary exhibition, arranged to honour the 40th anniversary of the G-Class.
