"I believe in the horse. The automobile is only a passing phenomenon," said Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1905.

And that is why the history of the automobile as told at the new Mercedes-Benz Museum begins with a nod in the direction of this misjudgement, and a stuffed horse.

That white horse seems a bit out of place at the beginning of the tour, given that everything else in the new museum in Stuttgart-Unterturkheim, the Walhalla of the world's oldest car manufacturer, is on wheels.

The futurist building with the aluminium sheen by Dutch architect Ben van Berkel reminds Focus magazine of a "galactic garage" and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of a "technoid organ: it vibrates, swells and writhes as if it had swallowed a turbo engine".

Inside, the open-plan building is more than a surprise: it is constructed like a curving double helix - made from 110,000 tons of steel, glass and concrete - and goes to the limits of modern construction statics. It would have been inconceivable only a few years ago.

Meandering bows in concrete lead the visitor through the history of Mercedes-Benz, which at least in its early phase can be equated with the history of the automobile, thanks to the inventors Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler.

The spiral walks turn in an endless loop from floors to walls and walls to ceilings and back to the floors again -thus providing the dynamic setting for the presentation of a total of 160 vehicles.

In such a futurist building an ordinary survey of the company's highlights would be out of the question.

In the invitation to take part in the architectural competition Mercedes had expressly stated its wish for a building that would house something that was not "an exhibition in the traditional sense."

The presentation of the content was then undertaken by HG Merz, who had already been the curator in the previous museum, which could no longer handle up to the half a million visitors and more it had to accommodate every year.

In the new building, Merz has divided the 16,500 square metres of exhibition space into seven "Myth" and five "Collection" rooms.

The open-plan architecture, however, enables visitors to cross over and back between the two tours. Together they represent a mixture of the high-tech and a design museum, a show imbued with elements of nostalgia, history and the everyday.

The Myth rooms focus on several outstanding cars from the 120-year-old history of the product range that have had a decisive influence on the development of Mercedes.

The Collection rooms bring together the most varied of models, under headings such as the Gallery of Travel or the Gallery of Heroes, from old-timers to utility vehicles.

The exhibition starts right at the top of the building, namely, level eight. The silent, almost hovering lifts are like time capsules, beaming their passengers into the automobile past.

Visible through slits is a film installation that takes you back in time, and in quick motion, through history. What you can hear at this level is the clatter of hooves and the rattle of coaches.

The Myth begins with the invention of the petrol engine and leads via numerous hair-pin bends from the pioneers Benz, Daimler and Maybach to the creation of the brand name Mercedes and the "Miracle Years 1945-1960" and on to the Myth room entitled "Weltbewegend. Global und individuell ", from 1982 to today.

In between there is no shortage of type designations, construction year references, figures indicating horsepower and cubic capacity, design studies and record-breaking models.

And of course myths in metal, such as a 1908 Double Phaeton, a 300 SL with wing doors or a 1928 white SSK.

And where does this show end? Appropriately in a steep curve, with models of the famous Silver Arrow in the section "Rennen und Rekorde", which in turn are accompanied by the roaring sound of the respective engine - legends on four wheels, which have still not lost any of their elegance.

To see everything in this, the world's largest, car museum you have to cover a good five kilometres.

And to hear the complete tour on the audio guide you would need 36 hours at your disposal.

If you are really taken by it all, then an underground passage takes you directly to the new sales room.

After all, the Mercedes-Benz brand may be worthy of a museum, but it is also very much of this world and strives for one thing more than anything else: to sell that myth with the star.

Source: Deutschland magazine

(China Daily 09/13/2006 page21)