Once upon a time, back in 1886, Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler independently invented the automobile. Benz in Mannheim and Daimler, some 100 kilometers away, in Stuttgart.
One morning, Carl Benz woke up and noticed his vehicle was gone. His wife, Bertha, who had financed the project, had secretly set off with her two boys on a 100-kilometer journey. She and the couple’s sons were to travel from Mannheim to Pforzheim, in their Benz Patent Motorcar. That was the first long-distance journey by a vehicle that was not drawn by horses.
Fourteen years later, businessman Emil Jellinek ordered a more powerful car from Daimler. A 35 HP vehicle that he would name after his daughter, Mercedes.
The car participated in a race and easily won. From that moment on, all cars produced by Daimler were called Mercedes.
Then rival company, Benz, motivated by the Mercedes success, began to build faster cars. But then times turned bumpy for businesses and so the two companies merged. A new brand name is born: Mercedes-Benz.
160 iconic vehicles of this impressive history are exhibited at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, the place that tells the entire history of the automobile.
The latest animation celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Mercedes-Benz Museum was made by three students from the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design. Annarita Matuschka, Eduard Losing and Dirk Michael Flach – plus Stefan Heller, a freelance artist and animated film maker, came up with the idea of a short film that would integrate the story of the Mercedes-Benz beginnings.
Skillfully designed bi-dimensional characters like Carl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Mercedes Jellinek were put in motion just by the simple and creative use of scissors, pen and paper. The car models though, are built with the use of digital programs and the music was especially composed for the video.
German actor Boris Aljianovic plays the part of the narrator, after lending his voice to the police inspector Felix Stark in the German police series “Tatort” and narrating numerous audiobooks and radio plays.
This comes shortly after another animation created by a young talented artist was posted on the Museum’s YouTube page. Watch it right here: Hungry for History – The museum-monster is chasing after iconic Mercedes-Benz cars.
