Germany is celebrating this year the birth of the automobile, with a patent applied for by Carl Benz 125 years ago for a motorized tricycle, in hopes of drawing tourists smitten by cars.

Historical cars are displayed at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, southern Germany. [CNTV]

The national tourism office has made the auto industry a highlight of its annual programme for the first time and the southwestern region of Baden-Wuerttemburg alone has organised 200 events from May through September.

Anyone travelling to the regional capital Stuttgart will not miss the Mercedes star that sits above the main train station or the posters that advertise the local auto museum.

Built at the base of a hill that dominates the city, the museum inaugurated in 2006 boasts a striking glass facade that covers a double spiral of steel meant to represent the automobile's DNA.

Historical cars are displayed at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, southern Germany. [CNTV]

An elevator that emits sports car sounds takes visitors to halls that contain the first autos, invented almost simultaneously by Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler.

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