Stuttgart: Home of Mercedes and VFB

May 17, 2006, 16:08 GMT

Stuttgart - Stuttgart`s Daimler Gottlieb stadium is named after the city`s most famous son who gave the world the Mercedes motorcar.

The 54,000-seater stadium, home of VfB Stuttgart, is the fourth- largest at the 2006 World Cup and will host four group matches, a round of 16 game as well as the playoff for third place.

In 1886, Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach mounted a petrol engine, developed by themselves, on to a four-wheeled frame.

The world`s first automobile was thus born in a factory on the outskirts of the city in the southwest of the country, which owes much of its subsequent prosperity to wheeled vehicles.

Car lovers will really enjoy a stay in this city, where the headquarters of both Daimler-Chrysler (formerly Daimler-Benz), the giant among German automobile manufacturers, and of Porsche, the famous sports car constructors, are located.

They will be able to visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum, a nine- storey building in the form of two helical coils, interlaced like a string of human DNA, which is being built next to the central factory in Stuttgart`s Untertuerkheim district.

The museum, named 'Myth Automobile', opens its doors on May 19, less than a month before the World Cup tournament and will exhibit 175 models, ranging from the classic Mercedes-Benz 600 to the legendary 'Silver Arrow' and also present day Formula One cars.

Sports car fans can also make a pit stop in Porsche`s museum, located in the company`s construction plant in the Zuffenhausen district, where many legendary models, including the mythical 911, are on show.

Group games:

June 13: France v Switzerland 
June 16: Netherlands v Ivory Coast 
June 19: Spain v Tunisia 
June 22: Croatia v Australia

Round of 16:

June 25: WB v RA

Third-place playoff:

July 08: R61 v R62