In the spotlight – 150 stars took centre stage at the official gala opening of the Nationales Automuseum – The Loh Collection. This was back in early July. Since then, these 150 rare and exceptional talents have been stunning museum-goers of all ages. However, they are not flesh-and-blood celebrities, but rather marvels made of steel and rubber. Summing up the museum’s first summer, Florian Urbitsch, who is Managing Director of the Nationales Automuseum alongside Tobias Reichle, has nothing but good news to report: “We’ve had a full house practically throughout. You can see by their faces as they walk out of the museum just how impressed people are.” Almost 30,000 visitors have come to the museum since it was opened. “We couldn’t be happier.” November sees the launch of the next major drive to get people through the doors, although this time it is students who are lining up. Let’s go back to the beginning though. After all, the collection that greets visitors as they explore 7,500 square metres of motoring history – and which up-and-coming talents have been able to research since November – started out as a dream.

In 1956, a visitor pulled up outside the Loh family home in a silver Mercedes 190 SL roadster. “That image was seared into my mind,” recalled Professor Friedhelm Loh at the opening ceremony of the Nationales Automuseum. “I just couldn’t stop thinking about that car.” In the 35 years since then, the entrepreneur and owner of the Friedhelm Loh Group has been quietly collecting icons of automotive history. The decision to put them on public display was a deliberate one. “I want to share my passion for technology and do my bit to encourage young people to develop the same sense of fascination.” After all, as he says, his initial dream has evolved. It started with the car of his childhood memories – then came the passion for collecting. “My dream now is to turn this museum into a centre for learning.”

A VISION THAT HAS STUCK

That dream has been a long time in the making. After the untimely death of his father and the company’s founder, Rudolf Loh, he took over his parents’ company. Aged 27 at the time, he set about building the foundations that Rittal stands on today as a global player and leading innovator. The silver Mercedes roadster of his childhood dreams slipped from his mind. For a while. “The company and its employees always came first and that remains the case,” says Prof. Loh. Later on, in the early 1980s, he finally realised his old dream of owning a 190 SL – only to be left disappointed. “It was a disaster. At first sight, it looked great, but when you got under the bonnet you could see that rust had eaten through it.” Nonetheless, his passion for cars was not diminished. “I don’t give up on my visions that easily,” he says, with a smile. The Nationales Automuseum proves that. He sold the 190 SL and initially specialised in Mercedes models. However, he quickly took an interest in “all the achievements of engineers and designers that had been outstanding in their time.” Back then, the pieces he collected were housed in one of the former factory workshops in his home town, which are now being used to showcase the spectacular exhibits as part of the museum. As Florian Urbitsch leads the way through the lavishly restored exhibition rooms, reeling off the HP of almost every exhibit and recounting its illustrious past, you almost feel like you might glimpse Henry Ford himself waving at you from behind the wheel.

CARS THAT HAVE MADE HISTORY

Visitors find themselves walking among cars that have made history. There is Michael Schumacher’s first World Championship Ferrari, US President John F. Kennedy’s Lincoln Continental, a Benz Victoria with sun canopy (unrestored) that has had prominent owners including the Benz family itself, and the record-breaking Maybach Exelero, only one of which was ever made. The largest of the museum’s rooms contains 30 sports and racing cars that are arranged next to each other and one on top of the other in a display unit that fills an entire wall. Dozens of dream cars from the post-war economic boom era are lined up end to end on a steep curve while, in another exhibit room, the stars of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race are parked up for inspection.