The Porsche Museum

After a wonderful weekend with Marcus B. I met up with another friend of mine Marcus Engel. Marcus E. runs a communications company that has done a lot of work for the Ontario Government and we've met on numerous occasions in connection with investment promotion work I've done for the Government.


As it turned out the Monday was a holiday in Stuttgart so virtually every store in the city was buttoned up but the Museum's were open. Since I'd already covered the Mercedes Benz museum on Sunday we headed out to the Porsche Museum instead.


Now I visited the old Porsche museum back in the 1990's and it was almost an embarrassment to the company. This museum is all new and is a huge improvement. I couldn't help but notice that in some respects it is a knock off of the Mercedes museum. A huge structure where you wind yourself through displays. At MB you start at the top and wind yourself down.... at Porsche you start at the bottom and wind yourself up. At both you can follow a chronological corridor and at both you can head off into side exhibit areas to explore specific themes. 


I liked the MB museum more since it provides not only a better understanding of the history of the company but more information on the history of the times as well. Of course, MB has a LOT more material to work with than Porsche with their two co-developers ... Daimler and Benz ... being so much involved with the invention of mobility. Porsche took some of their ideas and developed them when he worked at Daimler but he wasn't involved with the early development of the automobile. He was chosen 'automotive designer of the century" in the 1990's so is an important figure in our automotive history but in a very different way from either Daimler and or Benz.


But museums both are spectacular. As you can get from my write up of MB I came away from their tour and museum with a better understanding of their roots and the types of influences which developed the company. At Porsche I didn't get that but I did see a lot of wonderful product. Porsche and Mercedes Benz are intertwined through their early history with Ferdinand developing his automotive skills at Daimler before heading out on his own to open a design studio that morphed into a vehicle company.


Following are some pictures concentrated on the vehicles ordinary mortals like myself could purchase over the ages. I don't have much of a racing background and thus less of an appreciation for racing vehicles. The racing side of Porsche on display is much more extensive than the retail side of Porsche on display so these pictures don't do the museum justice although there are some great cars in these pictures.


Life if good ... enjoy


Auto Guru in Europe