Mercedes-Benz Museum

Spectacular double-helix museum tracing 130 years of automobile history from the first car

The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt is one of the most spectacular automotive museums in the world, housed in a dramatic double-helix building that opened in 2006. The collection spans the entire history of the automobile — from Carl Benz's 1886 Patent-Motorwagen, the first true gasoline-powered car, through the great racing cars of the 1930s, to current Formula 1 machines.

The building itself is worth the journey. Designed by UNStudio, the structure consists of two intertwined spiral ramps that visitors descend through nine levels, moving backward through time as they go. At each level, the collection opens into themed halls with hundreds of vehicles displayed in period settings. The engineering of the building mirrors the engineering culture of the company it houses.

Allow at least three hours; serious car enthusiasts will spend a full day. The museum is in Untertürkheim, east of the city center, easily reached by S-Bahn. It is one of Stuttgart's most-visited attractions and a genuine destination in its own right, not just for car enthusiasts.

things to do museum
A story
The museum is built around a structural double helix — two intertwined ramps spiralling through nine levels. You enter at the top and walk down through time, from the first Benz Patent Motorwagen of 1886 to current Formula 1 cars. The building, designed by UNStudio, was completed in 2006 and is one of the most architecturally significant automotive museums in the world. Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler both worked in Stuttgart — they never met and did not know of each other's work when they independently invented the gasoline-powered automobile in the same year.