The Unimog Museum in Germany
Written by Guus Docen
The first Unimog model was designed by Boehringer shortly after World War II to be used in agriculture as a self-propelled machine providing a power take-off to operate saws in forests or harvesting machines on fields. It was designed with permanent all-wheel drive, with equal-size wheels, in order to be driven on roads at higher speeds than standard farm tractors. Daimler-Benz took over manufacture of the Unimog in 1951, and first produced it in their Gaggenau plant under the Mercedes-Benz brand. However, the first Unimog to feature the three-pointed Mercedes-Benz star was only introduced in 1953. The Murgtal in Gaggenau had been the home of Mercedes-Benz Unimog production for decades, before production was relocated to Wörth. But the people of the city Gaggenau (state Baden-Württemberg) were so attached to the Unimog that in 2006 the Unimog Museum was founded by private citizens.