August 5 –
Another beautiful day in Germany! We awoke to more bright blue cloudless skies and the promise of an even hotter day. Our hotel was renovating their kitchen so they apologized for not having the biggest breakfast buffet in Stuttgart as usual. They were serving “snacks”: fresh rolls pre-spread with jam or Nutella, others with cheese or salami or salmon, coffee, tea, fresh fruit, yogurt, juice, cinnamon rolls and chocolate covered marshmallow things. Not bad for a snack! We ate more than our fill, checked out, stored the luggage and began the automotive pilgrimage part two: Mercedes-Benz museum.
I’m glad we went to the Porsche museum first because the one room of racecars paled in comparison to the unbelievable purpose-built structure that houses the Mercedes museum. I confess that I was concerned that there wasn’t enough German to learn in my phrasebook to keep me otherwise occupied while the motor heads in the family had their day. However, I am happy to say that I was quite pleasantly surprised! The building is unbelievable with 8 stories – cars on every one of course – and free audio guides included in the price of admission. You start on the top floor with the invention of gasoline engine and the vehicles that it inspired – both by the founders of the current corporation. There are lots of vehicles, engines, parts, designs, movies, hands-on exhibits, and history throughout the museum. The floor design is such that you work your way down through the building as you progress through automotive history.
What was the redeeming feature for me, and what earns this place top marks in my non-car-lover’s book is the history part. Not only do they go into detail about the history of the companies that eventually became today’s corporation, they put everything in the context of world history starting in 1863. So I actually got a history lesson not only in Mercedes history but in the German view of world history as well. For example, I didn’t know that Josephine Baker went on stage in Germany in the 20’s wearing a dress made of bananas!
Each level covers a particular era: early invention (through the First World War), the world wars, post-Hitler reconstruction era, the gas crisis through the 80s. There are photographs, films, and music from the relevant era’s surrounding the cars on display from that era along with interesting extras. For example, I learned about how the hanging pine tree air freshener came about!
The most fascinating part for me was the presentation of the war eras. I thought the coverage of the period was fair and balanced. The burden of the “most horrible period in the history of humanity”, as the recording put it, was placed squarely on the individuals in power as opposed to the German people. The exhibits and narration clearly outlined the companies’ role in the wars, including the total conversion of production during the 1940’s to armaments instead of vehicles. There was clear discussion of how it came to have nearly half the workforce comprised of forced laborers including inmates from concentration camps. There was no real attempt to avoid responsibility or sugar-coat the facts. I thought that was very admirable.
So three and a half hours later we emerged from the gift shop – you knew that that had to be the last stop – to return to the city center and prepare for our next destination: Basel.
We schlepped the bags down to the station and had a late lunch while waiting for the train. There isn’t a direct train from Stuttgart to Basel so we had to head north to Karlsruhe before catching the ICE to Basel. We had reserved our seats again – this time in a parent-child compartment. When we got on the train, however, we found two parents and a small child in that compartment. While we had every right to kick them out, there was serious guilt on my part when I realized that the compartments where really meant for parents with *small* children. Oops…. We shared the space with them no problem and it turned out that they were also going to Basel – and we were in the only parent-child compartment on the next train too. Oh well… now we know…
We checked into the hotel and proceeded to wander into town to get some dinner. We ate outside at der Restaurant zum Braunen Mutz on the Barfüsserplatz and it was yummy – I love rösti and tonight I had it with ham, egg and raclette! Then we wandered up to the Münster where they were preparing to show a movie on a large outdoor screen on the Münsterplatz. Unfortunately it wasn’t in English so we opted to move on and get our daily dose of ice cream before heading home. Luckily on this hot day, we’re in a hotel with AC!
/san/
[Pedometer: 21, 203 steps or about 10.5 miles through museums and cobblestones.]
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