Toutes les Machines du Monde
Germany
Click on the photo for each museum to visit our photo page for that museum
Museums are arranged by rating
Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart, Germany ★★★★★
www.mercedes-benz-classic.com/
This is a fantastic museum, recently built and spectacular in design. The collection of touring and racing cars ranges from the original creations of Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz right up to the most modern models. Mercedes-Benz Racing is well represented with cars on display from all periods of their racing activity. The organization of the museum and the way it leads the visitor through the decades is exemplary. Altogether another must see automotive museum.
Porsche Museum, Stuttgart, Germany ★★★★★
www.porsche.com/international/aboutporsche/porschemuseum/
Housed in a striking modern building, this museum is a highlight. In addition to Porsches going right back to number 1 in 1948, we also learn some of the personal history of Ferdinand Porsche and his career before that point, including his time as engineer for the famed Auto-Union racing cars of the 1930s and the development of the Volkswagen, which was about to begin series production until halted by the outbreak of the war in 1939. In addition to the permanent collection, a large area is given over to temporary exhibit space and of course these cars will vary over time. At the time of my visit the focus of the exhibition was Porsche’s long and successful history at the Twenty-Four Hours of Le Mans with numerous Porsche racing cars on display. I visited the museums at BMW, Audi and Porsche during a ten day period and the Porsche Museum was unquestionably the best of the three, ranking just below the fantastic Mercedes-Benz museum among the four German manufacturer’s offerings.
Auto & Technik Museum, Sinsheim, Germany ★★★★★
www.sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en
Now THIS is a fun museum, with something for everyone. It is indeed a technical museum and not solely an automotive museum. You want to compare the Concorde to its Russian SST counterpart? Step right up. You want tanks and military equipment? This is the place. Lots of fun exhibits, but at its core it is an excellent display of automotive memories, with hundreds of wonderful cars on display along with period accessories and excellent information panels. Outstanding! Located not far from the similar collection at Speyer, which we would also like to visit.
BMW Museum, Munich, Germany ★★★★
The BMW Museum displays both cars and motorcycles back to their first motorcycle in 1923 along with some airplane engines from before that. The museum is in a very nice building with mostly excellent display areas and lighting. Unfortunately, too many of the motorcycles are exhibited behind glass or plastic panels making reflections a problem. The cars are treated better than the cycles in this regard and generally I would say that someone primarily interested in the motorcycles might well leave somewhat disappointed. The BMW Welt occupies a separate and much larger and newer facility than the museum. This is where new BMWs, both cars and cycles, are shown and where buyers can take delivery of their new vehicles. This is a nice museum, but not as interesting as either the Mercedes or Porsche museums.
Audi Museum, Ingolstadt, Germany ★★★★
The Audi Museum is the smallest of the four major German manufacturers (Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and BMW being the others) and is housed in a very nice building, but not as elaborate or modern as the others. It is also the least expensive to visit, although all of them are quite reasonably priced. The collection covers not only Audi vehicles, but each of the manufacturers who banded together in the 1930s to form Auto-Union; Horch, DKW, Audi & Wanderer, and includes a few motorcycles. Unfortunately, some of the most beautiful early cars are displayed behind glass, while others are parked directly in front of the large windows going around the circular building. Each of these display choices is always a frustration to the photographer. The highlight of the exhibit for me was a pair of 1938 Auto-Union type C/D racing cars; one a Grand Prix car and one a dual rear wheeled hill climb car. Both cars were reportedly discovered in the Soviet Union and restored to their present immaculate condition in England. In addition to the permanent collection there is space for temporary exhibits.
August Horch Museum, Zwickau, Germany ★★★★
Zwickau was the Detroit of the former GDR and it has been a manufacturing point for automobiles since 1909. Beginning with Horch, on to the formation of Auto-Union, then the ubiquitous two-stroke Trabant during the cold war period and on to a modern Volkswagen plant in the city today; this museum tells the story. A bit pricey, and with little information in English, it is still a very nice place to visit and a good reason to explore this area of the former East Germany. The museum is strikingly attractive and the cars are lovingly displayed.
Volkswagen Autostadt, Wolfsburg, Germany ★★★★
This is Volkswagen’s display facility located at the VW factory. The Museum is the most interesting aspect of the various display pavilions and by itself would easily deserve a higher rating. I’ve marked it down based on the rather high cost of visiting Autostadt and the lesser interest of the other displays. In addition to the museum Autostadt includes pavilions for each of the makes owned by VW; Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Bentley, Lamborghini, and now Porsche. Factory tours are available with advance reservations.
Classic Remise, Berlin, Germany ★★★
This is an interesting and very different sort of automotive display. Not actually a museum at all, this is a collection of cars owned by individuals and by dealers; some being offered for sale, some being stored and others being restored on the site by shops that are there for that purpose. All of this is housed in an historic late 19th century train maintenance facility. Admission is not charged, there is a nice restaurant on site, and the whole experience is quite delightful. Naturally the collection on display will vary at any given time.