The Mercedes-Benz Museum showcases 120 years of automotive development - By Eva-Maria Burkhardt

The Mercedes-Benz Museum is a real draw. Since its opening in May 2006, more than two million people from 100 countries have come to Stuttgart to travel in time through automotive history.

About 120 years of automotive history, concentrated in the space of more than two football fields − can you hold your breath in the face of so much history? When you enter the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, you hear the noise of children instead of respectful silence. The kids all want their picture taken in front of the Formula One winner. If you stand in the foyer and look up, you get a clear view all the way up to the ceiling, 42 meters above you. With the audio guide dangling around your neck, you ride up in the elevator - because the journey through automotive history begins right at the top.

In the lift, you hear the sound of traffic, which becomes the clopping of horses' hoofs before you alight. Stepping out of the elevator, you stand face to face with a life-sized white horse - the ultimate in mobility before Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler turned their vision into reality and began constructing horseless carriages.

The audio guide takes you through auto history in eight languages, outlining the development of the car in the usual European tongues as well as in Chinese, Japanese and Russian. "More than 80 percent of visitors say the museum exceeded their expectations and that they will recommend us to others," said museum director Michael Bock proudly. "There is no greater compliment than that."

The 120-year history of the car is spread over nine levels. The architects of the exhibition, van Berkel & Bos (Amsterdam) and HG Merz (Stuttgart, Berlin) have pulled off a stroke of genius. Two tours lead from the top back down to the lobby. You walk in a relaxed fashion along curved paths from one era to the next. There are no awkward stairs to navigate.

There are seven "Legend Rooms," each of which covers a specific period in chronological order and five "Collection Rooms," in which vehicles are arranged according to theme instead of era. In all, there are 1,500 exhibits. The focus is on the 160 vehicles, which include 80 cars, 40 utility vehicles and 40 racing cars.

At the top, in "The Invention of the Automobile" section, you see the fascinating Daimler riding car and the Benz motorized carriage, built in 1886. The next hall contains vehicles from 1914 to 1945. With its elegant silhouette, long hood and the extravagant curve of the wings, the Mercedes-Benz 500 K special roadster is a dream. Built in 1936, it was the luxury sports car of the rich and famous. In the same room, you can find the Lo 2000 diesel platform truck, built in 1932. The juxtaposition is no accident - the museum intends to display the broad spectrum of the Mercedes brand in all its halls, bringing trucks, buses, and vans together under one roof for the first time.

The fourth hall, "Post-war Miracle" also has its share of automobile treasures - for instance, the car of former German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. This 1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 is more than five meters long, imposing and elegant. There is also the 1953 300 SL and the SL Coupe built two years later - dream wheels by anyone's standard, even today.

The Collection Room next door presents the "Gallery of Celebrities," including the bus used by the German national football team in 1974, the Pullman of Japanese Emperor Hirohito and the 190 SL, driven by stars such as Grace Kelly and Zsa Zsa Gabor. The hall is also home to the pope mobile from which Pope John Paul II waved to the crowds on his visit to Germany in 1980.

The past three decades take a more down-to-earth approach. Mercedes as a brand aims to present itself here as a safety and technology pioneer and as a guarantee of reliability. One example of this is the 1988 Mercedes-Benz 200 D. Via a headset, you can hear its former owner, a Portuguese taxi driver. He tells you he drove this car 1.95 million kilometers over 14 years. In that time, the doors opened and shut roughly 120,000 times. His son practically grew up in this car. The museum had a tough job convincing the man to part with it!

Bock says visitors particularly love the emotional ending of their time journey: "Forty racing cars show the breadth of fascination for motor racing." The first racing cars stand next to one another on a ramp - the Silver Arrows and the current Formula One racecars.

Bock says the separate exhibition area, "The Fascination of Technology," also captivates thousands of visitors. Once you have bought a ticket to the museum, the technology section is free as are special exhibitions and the tour through the main Mercedes plant nearby.

Just before Christmas, the "S 400 Blue Hybrid" special exhibition ended. "Demand was so great that we extended it by a month," said Bock, adding that he is pleased that there is so much interest in new, alternative energies. "This means the museum is bridging the gap between the past, present and future."

This is the connection the "E Class History" exhibition - planned for 2009 - aims to make. The show's opening is set to coincide with the market launch of the new mid-range model. The museum does not want people to just revel in memories - it encourages them to buy new cars as well.