Porsche Museum Stuttgart

Sorry for not posting lately. It's been difficult to get pictures and ideas for new posts and life has become a little bit more ordinary and I haven't gone off doing exciting things. I have now some good topics for upcoming posts, so be prepared to do some reading this week.

This post is about my recent visit to Stuttgart, the capital city of the Bundesland Baden-Würtemburg. Stuttgart is the home to several famous German companies like Mercedes-Benz, Robert Bosch, and Porsche. It's also largely involved in the automotive industry. Stuttgart was completely destroyed during WWII as it was a center of industry for the Third Reich. Since then, Stuttgart has rebuilt itself, turning itself into one of Germany's prime centers for business and industry. Stuttgart is by no means a very pretty city, however, it has some unique characteristics that set it apart from other German cities. Stuttgart is very small, although it's the 6th largest city in Germany. Settled in a valley, the land area of Stuttgart if very small, and most of the city is built on the hills that surround the city. Only the downtown area is in the valley, where you can find the palaces of the Würtemburg family. The main pedestrian area of Stuttgart, known as Königstrasse is the place to go. Since things are closed on Sunday in Germany, and I mean completely closed, it's more of a place to go to get a cup of coffee and people watch. Luckily the weather afforded us some sun and warmth, as the weather here is definitely switching to fall.

I met up with my friend Patrick at the Bahnhof (Train station) and from there we took the suburban train to Porscheplatz. The train literally drops you off in back of the brand new Porsche Museum. The museum is located in the compound of the headquarters of Porsche. The buildings surrounding the museum all belong to Porsche, some are business/corporate buildings, one is the main Porsche dealership, and the other one is actually one of the factory assembling the cars.

The Porsche Museum itself was only recently completed, and it's marvel of modern engineering and design. The aesthetics of the buildings reminds passersbye of the direction that Porsche wants to go. Modern, technical, beautiful and advanced. The building is vaulted above ground and is support by large concrete pillars. The building is designed with angular surfaces covered in a shiny gun metal color. Interestingly the building has no windows, but because the building is so shiny, it reflects the colors of the sky and building around it.

Porsche Museum Entrance

Inside the museum, a modern white covered the walls and floors. We bought our tickets for the entrance (4€) and then stood on the long escalator that took us up. The museum doesn't have floors, but rather is a linear ramp that goes up and up (sort of like the Guggenheim museum in New York). However, the floor is the ramp, and so the installations are also on the ramp. Porsche was started by Ferry Porsche who helped developed the first people's car (Volkswagen) the Beetle in 1950. That's the reason why the original Beetle has a similar profile as all Porsches.

Original 911

I particularly like the Porsche's of the 1990's and I feel the design is classic much more unique. I particularly like the Porsche 959 and of course the 911. I was pleased to see that Porsche's signature color was a nice green color. In fact, when ordering a new Porsche, that green color fetches a $3000 premium.

Porsche 959

After exploring the museum, we went downstairs and ate at the adjoining restaurant. There were many Americans (to my surprise) at the museum. Maybe some of them were coming to pick up their Porsche using the European Delivery program.

The Porsche Centrum (Dealership) Stuttgart

After visiting the museum, we had to wait 30 minutes until the next suburban train going back to Stuttgart Hbf, so we ventured over to the dealership to take a closer look at the current offerings from Porsche. Not that I was shocked, but we Americans are really fortunate to know that most German products cost significantly less in the United States that in Germany. Odd to think that a German product built in Germany would cost up to 160% more in Germany. For instance, Porsche's Cayenne S SUV can retail in the US for ~$90,000, while in Germany the vehicle easily reaches the 110,000€ mark, (the equivalent of $150,000). Also, a big difference in buying a car in Germany is that every option is a standalone one. Unlike the US where options are usually packaged into bundles which are usually cheaper than selecting the standalone option. When getting ready to buy a car in Germany, you actually have to go to the dealer and pick up the order books, and which point you select every single feature that you want on your car. A base Mercedes C class will have not have the following features which are standard in the US: air conditioning, alloy wheels, power rear windows, sunroof, leather seats, etc. These options must all be selected when purchasing your car. In fact, if you're going to buy a new car, you can't just show up at dealer and say I want that one (although you can do that, there are only 2 or 3 vehicles available to pick up like that), but you have to place an order which takes usually 3 months to build. But at least you get every feature you want.

The Porsche Centrum (Dealership) Stuttgart

After Patrick and I got back to Stuttgart, we went to Starbucks. I was getting homesick, and the comforting feeling of knowing that I could go into a Starbucks and feel like I was at home (since all of them look identical inside). From there, we met Jutta for a brief 30 minutes as she was frantically trying to finish a 2+ month assignment for work before she leaves for the US this upcoming Friday.

Well, that was pretty much my day in Stuttgart last Sunday. On the way home, I rode the train with Anna, and randomly to our surprise ran into Ashley on her way back from Münster. Unfortunately, the good/bad thing about the German trains are that they are all air-conditioned. Since I've been living here, I have had no air-conditioning, so riding on the train always makes me sick, as I can't tolerate cold air blowing on me anymore. I've been the sole PPPler is perpetually sick, and all that I can say is that I'm tired of it. Hopefully this weekend, I will get the fresh Alpine air and feel better.

Next post: Surf School

p.s. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, they were taken with my cell phone.