Some news from the old Mercedesmuseum in Stuttgart - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Eberhard Weilke · #1 03-06-2007, 04:58 PM

Hello everybody,

this week they started to demolish the old Mercedesmuseum in the heart of the Untertürkheim plant. From 1961 until last March it housed the museum collection of Mercedes Benz and saw about 500 000 visitors per year.

It underwent a renovation in 1984 for the centinential of the automobil in 1985.

Just before the big jackhammers were coming, we got the chance to visit the partly abandoned building (some offices were still used and they used it occasionally for events)

We had the chance for a one day exhibition:

"Modern Classics: esthetic functionalism at the dawn of the 20th century"

This is the area, where they showed last year the whole bunch of C 111. I have the pics somewhere...

We didn't stick to passenger cars, we also had a light truck at our one day exhibition.

But what the hell were we doing there? Who gave us the keys to the old museum, took care of door passes at the main gate?

That is, where the VDH (Verein der Heckflossenfreunde, Germanys second biggest Mercedes Club) comes into the picture. It started with a remarkable conversation with one of the representatives of Mercedes-Benz Club-Managements:

“You want to do ?WHAT?????”

“We want to remove some of the original tiles from 1961 at the top floor and we want to auction them of for charity”

“Removing them ist possible?”

“We have no idea, we haven’t done that before.”

“And someone is going to pay money for building rubble?”

“We have no idea, we haven’t done that before.”

And on and on....

Anyway, for three days (and three late, late evenings...) we got the chance to get into the museum and to remove the old floor.

Eberhard Weilke · #2 03-06-2007, 04:58 PM

As expected, most turned into rubble.

Most stretches, about 20 % was reusable.

Some areas, were they used less cement, were better, about 60% was usable

In the end, we were able to rescue about 300 sqft. of very nice, almost perfect tiles.

They are hand selected, cleaned and are carefully stacked in transport boxes

So what is going to happen next? We are going to do some public relations work and sometimes this summer we will auction this one and only batch of on ebay. One person will be able to cover his garage floor with exactly the same floor they put into the museum an where most of the time the different Mercedes for the Vatican were standing (the 300 Adenauer Landaulet was there, the W 100 for several years...)

The money of this auction is going to be donated to www.kolping.net, an organisation, which supports job training for underprivileged kids around the world.

There is a batch of brocken tiles which the Museum will use for a exclusive edition of model cars. But that is still in the works...

Kind regard
Eberhard

A264172 · #3 03-06-2007, 05:37 PM

Did you save any of the broken ones?

Those tiles are in better shape than my 300E!

Jim B. · #4 03-06-2007, 06:42 PM

WOW, that's really great! That was a lot of hard work! The cleaned up tiles look really great. Vielen danke! I hope you are very successful in your endeavors. Set up the auctions on all the ebay auction sites, Canada, Australia, UK, France etc. and you'll have good luck I am sure.

Be sure to notify the forums when the auction happens.

It was really nice of you to inform people here about this. Be sure and notify some of the other Mercedes forums about it. Maybe the Mods can make it a"Sticky" event notice.

Again, thank you. Excellent story, pictures, and a selfless motive behind it all.

Best wishes to the Heckflossenfreunde Club. There are many people here who own maintain and take good care of those cars in this forum.

Eberhard Weilke · #5 03-06-2007, 10:18 PM

...on what is going on

Don't hesitate to forward this thread to all the communities you know. I'm looking forward to make some serious money with the auction. And please note: their is no monetarien benefit for us in it. Zero, nothing...

Well, took some leftovers for our clubhouse in Ornbau and if you get there, some displays might look really familiar

Kind regards
Eberhard

t walgamuth · #6 03-06-2007, 10:37 PM

thanks.

why are they tearing it down?

tom w

Eberhard Weilke · #7 03-06-2007, 10:41 PM

...they build a new one

Kind regards
Eberhard

t walgamuth · #8 03-06-2007, 10:50 PM

yep.

kindof figured that was it.

tom w

iwrock · #9 03-06-2007, 10:51 PM

Thats awesome!!!

Definietly let us all know when you auction that off.

t walgamuth · #10 03-06-2007, 11:17 PM

i wouldn't mind having a square of that to set alongside my brick from the indianapolis motor speedway track.

can we buy them and get them shipped here?

tom w

Ara T. · #11 03-07-2007, 12:21 AM

I'll buy a tile..

#12 03-07-2007, 12:36 AM

Cool! I'd like to have a chunk for my collection.

Vronsky · #13 03-07-2007, 02:21 AM

The new MB museum is still on my to-do list: I understand it's a breathtaking exhibition masterpiece.