This morning I rented a car and drove about 20 km or so from Mannheim to Ladenburg. There, Carl Benz and his two sons built cars after the elder Benz had been forced out of the business back in Mannheim. The Dr. Carl Benz Museum is a superb smaller museum, located in the factory where Benz later lived and built cars. A number of the vehicles are stunning, including several race cars that go all the way up to a 1991 Sauber-Mercedes. The memorabilia in the cases include some very rare ephemeral literature; automobilia; Carl Benz's wife's wedding dress!; badges; and timing equipment. This is a side trip well-worth taking if you are in the vicinity of Mannheim.The point about Carl Benz and his second venture in Ladenburg points to some fundamentals in the sweep of automobile history. Namely, relationships in the auto industry are rarely static or stable for long. Key people coming and going, mergers, bankruptcies, global shifts, the drying up or expansion of markets, etc., have always been a part of the history of the industry, and there are indications these phenomena will continue. We in the U.S. were blessed with considerable stability in the decades after WWII, and recent events related to GM and Chrysler seem so foreign to us. That we escaped this turbulence for so long may be the real anomaly in history. However, we are entering a new world in the American auto industry, as both the new role of the federal government as stockholder and the ownership of a large percentage of stock by the UAW truly is a new departure with unknown consequences for the future.
Note the 1955 Porsche!
Lest you think that all I am interested in is auto history, I did want to digress for a moment and say that Mannheim is a fabulous medium-sized city. On Saturday night there was a marathon right by my hotel, followed by a major city celebration at the Wasserturm (Water Tower). The music was simply great. Mannheim has plenty going on, and I highly recommend experiencing it! Tomorrow morning I will move on to Stuttgart and the Porsche Museum.
