Unbound · Places · Stuttgart
Stuttgart audio guide: the stories of its sights
Between the Schlossplatz, the Wilhelma and the Mercedes-Benz Museum: Unbound knows more than 3,500 places in and around Stuttgart and tells you on the way what happened at them.
More than 3,500 places in Stuttgart, told on the way. Get the app →
Stories to listen to
This is how Unbound tells them on the way, in the app's voice. Every story is researched from Wikipedia and other sources.
Mercedes-Benz Museum
The bus that East Germany refused
The East German football team once turned down a free bus from Mercedes-Benz.
The reason? It was missing a hammer and a pair of compasses. During the World Cup, Mercedes-Benz provided every national team with a coach painted in its country's colours. The East German side refused to accept theirs. The national symbols of the GDR, the hammer and compasses, were not on it. That story comes to mind at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt.
It opened on 19 May 2006 and belongs to the Mercedes-Benz World. It stands on an artificial hill, right in front of the main gate of the Untertürkheim plant. Inside, you will find a type O 302 coach, equipped like the one used by the German national team at a World Cup. Today this is by far the most visited museum in Stuttgart. It holds the Benz Patent-Motorwagen Number 1, the first car with a combustion engine.
There is also the bus known as the "Tausendfüßler", the Thousand-Footer, and the Popemobile of Pope John Paul II.
One of more than 3,500 places in Stuttgart. On the way, Unbound tells you their stories as you pass by. Get the app →
Wilhelma
Zoo through the back door: how exhibitions saved the zoo
A finance minister once ordered the animals out of the Wilhelma in Stuttgart, and a lion cub changed his mind.
It happened like this. The Wilhelma is a zoological and botanical garden in the Bad Cannstatt district of Stuttgart. It sits inside a historicist palace complex, built between 1846 and 1866. After the war, it lay in ruins. Its director, Albert Schöchle, in post since 1933, began rebuilding in autumn 1945 with his staff. His idea was to put on temporary animal exhibitions.
Here is the clever part: after each show, the animals always stayed. But the Ministry of Finance did not approve, and it ordered the animals to be removed. So Schöchle went to the finance minister himself. He talked him into naming a lion cub at a christening. The minister withdrew his order. Today the Wilhelma shows around 11,000 animals on about 30 hectares.
And it has a quiet curiosity: over a distance of about 40 metres, you can hold a conversation in whispers. The phenomenon was rediscovered in 2010 by Uwe Laun.
One of more than 3,500 places in Stuttgart. On the way, Unbound tells you their stories as you pass by. Get the app →
Schlossplatz
The demolished Crown Prince's Palace
On the Schlossplatz in Stuttgart, a palace survived the bombs, only to be pulled down almost 20 years later.
That palace was the Kronprinzenpalais, the Crown Prince's Palace. The Schlossplatz is the largest square in the centre of Stuttgart. It lies in front of the Neues Schloss, the New Palace. It is a baroque garden with fountains and a music pavilion. The square also cuts the pedestrian street Königstraße into an upper and a lower half. The Kronprinzenpalais was a neoclassical building.
In 1944, an air raid left it burnt out. Yet the façades were still standing. For years, it stayed that way. Then, in 1963, it was demolished to make way for a road. The plan was controversial, and the façades had survived. Today the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart stands on the spot. It opened in 2005 as a partly transparent glass cube. The square itself is lively. Open-air concerts take place here, and so does the Stuttgart children's and youth festival.
At the end of April and the start of May, the International Festival of Animation shows open-air films here.
One of more than 3,500 places in Stuttgart. On the way, Unbound tells you their stories as you pass by. Get the app →
Hear every story on the way
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Questions about the audio guide in Stuttgart
- Is there an audio guide for Stuttgart?
- Yes. Unbound knows more than 3,500 places in Stuttgart and tells you their stories on the way, as soon as you pass by, on foot, by bike or by car. You don't need to plan a route: start a tour and just set off.
- Which sights in Stuttgart does Unbound tell you about?
- The famous ones like Mercedes-Benz Museum, Wilhelma, Schlossplatz, and just as much the inconspicuous places where something happened: a church in a backyard, a fountain, a street with a past.
- How much does the audio guide cost?
- You can try Unbound for free. After that there are passes for a weekend or two weeks and a yearly subscription.
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