I’m not a car person, but I loved this car museum

Karl Benz was working on the world’s first automobile in the late 1800s in Mannheim (not far from Stuttgart), unbeknownst to the fact Gottlieb Daimler was simultaneously scurrying away in his Stuttgart workshop on the internal combustion engine. They had different intentions: Benz concentrated on the development and production of automobiles. While Daimler was interested in using his engines to motorize land, sea and air travel.

Incredibly, although only living 95 km from each other, the two inventors never actually met, though by 1924 their companies would merge to form Daimler-Benz AG, headquartered in Stuttgart.

The Mercedes-Benz Museum was opened in 2006, near Daimler's original workshop in Stuttgart, charting the evolution of the car over 135 years through the context of world history. It’s an impressive museum, sure to impress even the least car-obsessed person in your family.

The world’s first automobile, vintage police cars and fire trucks, and the ultra-futuristic Vision Avatar vehicle are all on display across nine floors. The building’s design is impressive in itself, even landing a spot in the Guinness Book of Records for producing the ‘strongest artificially generated tornado in the world' in the atrium, a feature designed to quickly remove smoke in case of a fire.

As someone who doesn’t know the difference between a 300 SLR and a C291, I happily spent two hours wandering the halls, reading every placard along the way and absorbing the stories from the audio guide. The museum begins by introducing the social factors that led to the invention of the automobile. Interestingly, the public in Germany were wary of the car at first, believing it to be loud, dirty and dangerous, while France embraced it with open arms.

Through each automobile advancement, the museum also explains the simultaneous cultural shifts. For example, during the post-war years that saw social freedom, women's rights and consumerism explode, the appearance of Mercedes-Benz vehicles changed into more curvaceous, rectangular layouts and short-nose commercial models that became more affordable for the masses.

I especially loved the Gallery of Celebrities, where you could see the Popemobile, the Mercedes-Benz owned by Princess Diana, and the team bus of the Federal Republic of Germany used for the 1974 Soccer World Cup.

I left feeling like I know more about the world through the context of the automobile. It gave me a new appreciation for the engine, and just how significant that invention has been to modern-day life.

For car enthusiasts, rare vehicles such as the 300 SLR “Uhlenhaut Coupe” are sure to impress. This car was destined for the Panamerica Carerra but never made it onto the track after the race was cancelled. It was recently sold at a secret auction to a private collector for 135 million euros ($223 million).

The Silver Arrows hall is also a must-see with its collection of record-breaking sports cars. From the World Record T80 from 1940 to one of the most recent additions, Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes-AMG F1 car that won him his seventh Drivers’ Championship and the World Constructors Championship.

Just a few kilometres across town, the Porsche museum stands tall among its factory workshops in Bad Cannstatt. And while it offers an impressive display of Porsche vehicles, the Mercedes-Benz museum paints a considerably broader picture of the way automobiles reflect society at large. It was so good, I spent the next few days gawking at any Mercedes-Benz I passed on the street.

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