- The Mercedes-Benz Museum offers its open-air stage as a venue for cultural events from Stuttgart and the surrounding region
- Performance opportunities in difficult times for culture and the arts
- A summer season with around 100 outdoor events
- Many concerts, club evenings, comedy shows, improvisation theatre, European Championship public screening, classic vehicles, childrenʼs and family programme and more
Stuttgart. This summer, Stuttgartʼs urban culture will be visiting the Mercedes-Benz Museum: in view of the difficult conditions for the arts, culture and the event industry in 2021 due to the pandemic, the Museum is offering creative artists from Stuttgart and the region the opportunity to stage their events on the open-air stage at the Museum. Around 30 cooperation partners have confirmed their participation. In this way, together with the Mercedes-Benz Museumʼs own events, this has resulted in an attractive summer programme with around 100 shows. The event season is from 15 June to September 2021.
For a small usage fee, the Museum is providing its open-air stage together with the infrastructure. The Museum is also providing the framework for the necessary hygiene concept. The open-air stage normally provides seating for 1,100 people but is now between 250 and 500 depending on the current Corona regulation. With its summer programme, which is based on cooperation, the Mercedes-Benz Museum is emphasising its role as a cultural venue for the immediate region and beyond.
“The aim is to invite people from Stuttgart and the region to our Museum with a colourful mix of events and, to this end, we had the idea of offering urban culture a place for hygienically compliant performances in these challenging times,” says Bettina Haussmann, who has been the new Head of the Mercedes-Benz Museum since March 2021. “The artists have welcomed the idea with open arms, which of course makes us very happy. We mutually benefit each other,” Bettina Haussmann sums up. “At a time when so many things are extremely difficult, we have decided to act pragmatically and handle things in a straightforward way. Everyone contributes what they do best: the artists are responsible for their content, we provide an outdoor location that is safe under pandemic conditions and ensure smooth operations in the background.”
The diverse range of offerings together with the underlying urban culture is expected to be particularly well received by the guests. Popular summer highlights such as the Concert Summer with 6,000 guests in front of the large festival stage have had to be postponed for another year and the large-scale open-air cinema cannot take place in 2021 either.
Live concerts, club nights, stand-up comedy, improv theatre and much more
Instead, such acts as Chimperator Live, Stutt:Ard and the Merlin cultural centre will be showing live concerts in front of smaller audiences. Medieval music will be provided by the band Faun, alternative rock and metal from the Ulm band Die Happy. Popular Stuttgart clubs such as Climax Institutes, Freund + Kupferstecher or the Bar Rakete of the Rampe theatre and others will be playing electronic music, hip-hop, indie and pop. The Stuttgart State Opera will be staging its popular seat cushion concerts for children and various classical formats for adults. The Kanonenfutter improv theatre and Bühne Rosenau are guests with poetry slams, comedy will be provided by Suchtpotenzial, Eure Mütter and stand-up comedians Olli and Dominik Kuhn alias Dodokay.
The Museum was supported by the Club Kollektiv Stuttgart interest group in setting up the network between the Museum and the creative artists from Stuttgart and the region. Classic cars, European Championship public screening, Formula E broadcasts, lectures and a childrenʼs and family programme will complete the range of urban culture on offer.
An important contribution to the Museum summer is provided by the classic car meetings on the mound in front of the Museum, which are now called “Classics & Coffee” (previously they were “Cars & Coffee”). In the summer of 2020, the classic car and young classic meetings showed that open-air formats of this kind can be safely hosted even under the current conditions. As a result, the programme on the Museum Mound is to be extended to three days: on Thursday evenings (from 5 p.m.) and Sundays, there will be “Classics & Coffee” (all day), where drivers of classic cars of all makes meet up, and on Fridays (from 6 p.m.), fans of Mercedes-Benz vehicles of all ages will gather at “Stars under the stars”.
The team from Berthaʼs Museum catering service will be providing a varied, summery range of food and beverages on site: www.mercedes-benz.com/berthas.
The entire programme of urban culture at the Mercedes-Benz Museum can be viewed here: https://www.mercedes-benz.com/stadtkultur/.
Change in the Museum management
Bettina Haussmann, as a Member of the Management Board of Mercedes-Benz Museum GmbH, took over as Head of the Museum on 1 March 2021. An expert in marketing communications, she has worked for Daimler since 1998 and, in recent years, has been responsible for experience-based communications at the Groupʼs headquarters. The previous Head of the Museum, Monja Büdke, has resumed Group responsibilities. Christian Boucke remains at the helm of Mercedes-Benz Museum GmbH as Head of Mercedes-Benz Classic. Andreas Theel has also been a Member of the Management Board since April 2021.
The Mercedes-Benz Museum is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The ticket desk always closes at 5 p.m.
Registration, reservations and latest information:
Monday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. by telephone on +49 711 17-30000, by email to classic@daimler.com or online at www.mercedes-benz-classic.com/museum.