Exhibition
Fascinating Mercedes Design
DDC Danish Design Center

September 28 to January 2, 2001

Photo: Kirsten Kiser
Polishing the 1934 Typ.500K (W29)

Few inventions have fascinated the 20th Century like the invention and design of the automobile, and few automobiles have continuously fascinated with their classic beauty and technical innovation like the Mercedes.

What is important in a Mercedes Design?

Peter Pfeiffer,Chief of Design at DaimlerChrysler AG, who introduced the exhibition, answered that a new car should not only “Look” new - it should “Be” new. The automobile must reflect the prestigious Mercedes name and also be respectful of the 100 year old Mercedes-Benz tradition.
Since 1997 the Design Department has been located in new Headquarters in Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart, designed by Renzo Piano.

Photo courtesy DDC
Benz Motorwagen 1885/86

Fabrication started in 1885 with Karl Benz’s invention of the motorized Three-Wheeler and Gottlieb Daimlers’ motorized car. However, the design tradition did not start before 1901 with the first Mercedes-Benz. Wilhelm Maybach created a concept, unique at the beginning of the 20th century, combining a masterpiece of technical beauty with compactness and a low center of gravity - also the basis for car designs today.

Photo: Kirsten Kiser
Mercedes-Benz 1901

The exhibition takes you from the first Mercedes design introduced in 1901; the first independently designed automobile to replace the motorized horse-drawn carriage, to the very new C-Class just introduced.

Photo courtesy DDC
The 300 SL “Gullwing” 1954/57

Photo courtesy DDC
The Roaster from 1954 to the newest SLK version 2000.

Photo: Kirsten Kiser
This one tops my Christmas List....the new Vision SLA 2000