Stuttgart is one of the principal centres of motor car production and development in Europe since Gottlieb Wilhem Daimler (1834-1900) set up a workshop in the suburb of Bad Cannstadt in 1890. His company registered the name ‘Mercedes’ for its vehicles after one of its agents won the first Tour de Nice in 1899 in a vehicle named after his daughter.

The Mercedes-Benz Museum displays a collection of 175 cars, the earliest of them a Karl Benz patent vehicle and a Daimler horseless carriage, both of 1886, in a variety of appropriate contexts.