Every visitor to the Mercedes-Benz Museum will discover the diversity of the exhibition and the architecture from a very individual perspective. But which focal points of the museum and which of the stories they tell will become the focal point of that personal perception? Today, we will provide some insight from: Jutta Benz, great-granddaughter of Carl, inventor of the motor car, and his wife, Bertha Benz.
“Legend 1 is, understandably, the most important room for me here at the Mercedes-Benz Museum. This is where you will find the patent motor car invented by my great-grandfather, the world’s first motor car. Our family has very close links to this car – it is practically a member of the family. It keeps the memory of my great-grandparents’ successes alive, and that is very important to me. What do I think is missing in this room? Maybe a bust of Bertha Benz. After all, she was actively involved in making the invention a success. Besides, it would enhance the room: she was a beautiful woman.”
Keeping the memory of her great-grandparents’ successes alive: Jutta Benz in Legend Room 1 on the patent motor car from 1886.
Brand ambassador with a great name: Jutta Benz from Mannheim. It was there that Carl Benz invented the motor car.
“I inherited a consciousness of tradition from my father. I promised him I would keep the memory alive and I have been doing this very attentively since his death. I really enjoy working as a brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz Classic.”
“I am quite at ease acknowledging the merits of Gottlieb Daimler. I even find the early Mercedes vehicles, which were produced by Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft before the two companies merged, much more beautiful than the Benz cars of the same time. I particularly like the Mercedes-Simplex.”
At the Mercedes 75 PS double phaeton from 1908: the beauty of the early years of the motor car by Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft.
View of an early omnibus with a combustion engine: Carl Benz wanted his invention to benefit as many people as possible.
“The merger to form Daimler-Benz AG took place in 1926. My great-grandfather, Carl Benz, was asked if he would mind if his name came second, because it sounded better when it was pronounced. He didn’t mind. To this day, I think that sounds great: Daimler-Benz! He always wanted his invention to benefit as many people as possible, which is why, in 1895, he built the world’s first omnibus with an internal combustion engine.”
“I find the layout of the Mercedes-Benz Museum very original. In most museums you start at the bottom and work your way up. Here it is the other way round, and so you start with early history and end up back in the present. I also like the ‘Illustrated chronicle’ along the corridors, it is practically a complete documentation of earlier times.”
A dynamic path through the Mercedes-Benz Museum: Jutta Benz likes the exhibition’s layout from top to bottom through the eras.
In front of the “Illustrated chronicle”: the former history teacher appreciates this documentation of the decades since 1886.
“One display case of the ‘Illustrated chronicle’ is called ‘1903: The beginning of the women’s movement’. I’m glad this topic has been included. It’s close to my heart. That’s why I admire my great-grandmother so much: she was an independently thinking and acting woman at a time when this was neither common nor easy. I barely even knew her. When Bertha Benz died in May 1944, I was only one-and-a-half years old. But for my christening, she wrote me a letter that is still hanging on the wall of my house today.”
“I bought my first Benz in the mid-1970s as a used car from a farmer in the Palatinate. It was a green ‘fintail’ 190 D with grey upholstery and a huge boot, a super car. The next one was a Stroke Eight and then I got a W 123. They were all wonderful saloon cars, and I was out on the road a lot in them. I like driving very much – and prefer to be behind the wheel myself. In 2011, I was even able to drive an Actros at a Mercedes-Benz Classic event, that was great.”
Time travel in a motor car: a “fintail” was Jutta Benz’s first car – she loved it.