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English   A historical review: The International Automobile Show (IAA) and Mercedes-Benz
18.09.2010 von admin

German version

A historical review: The International Automobile Show (IAA) and Mercedes-Benz
"Automobile exhibitions are highly popular events which attract far more visitors than just those able to afford a car", the "Untertürkheimer Zeitung" commented in a report on the International Automobile Show (IAA) in 1953. The same is true today; however, it was not always so. In the early years of the automobile most people had no interest whatever in this completely new form of horsepower. On the contrary, visitors to the first trade and world fairs at which automobiles were exhibited proved extremely skeptical where these newfangled horseless carriages were concerned.

The International Automobile Show (IAA), which nowadays opens its doors in Frankfurt am Main every two years, is always an important exhibition for Mercedes-Benz. It is Germany’s largest trade fair, and fascinates the motor industry and vehicle buyers in equal measure. The IAA has been held for more than 100 years and therefore has a long and varied history.


Benz Patent Motor Car, 1886.

Forums for automobiles and contacts

In the early years, demonstration drives were more effective advertising than static displays. Nonetheless there were exhibitions; these were important for establishing international contacts, and therefore for the propagation of the automobile. Gottlieb Daimler and the Englishman Frederick S. Simms became acquainted at the North-West German Trade and Industrial Fair held in Bremen in 1890, for example. This fair therefore marked the beginning of a business relationship which brought motorization to the British Isles.

Karl Benz exhibited his first car in Paris in 1887. One year later he also showed his Patent Motor Carriage to the German public at the Engine and Working Machine Exhibition in Munich. At the end of the 19th century, however, it was mainly at world fairs that international recognition was to be obtained. Accordingly, Gottlieb Daimler presented his engines and a four-wheel car in Paris in 1889. In 1893, at the World Fair in Chicago, it was not only the Benz Velo but also the cars by Daimler and Maybach that were admired by the American public.

In 1895 the first specialist motor show was held in England, with a car by Panhard & Levassor as well as a fire tender powered by a Daimler engine on display. In the same year this was followed by the "Exposition de Locomotion Automobile" in France, which was accompanied by a road race.


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