'Our true heritage is not the car itself'
Of all car manufacturers, Mercedes-Benz is arguably the most committed to preserving its past. Marque devotee and company veteran Marcus Breitschwerdt heads the division called Mercedes-Benz Heritage. We sat down with him to discuss the most visited museum in southern Germany, a collection of more than 1,200 vehicles, Europe’s largest corporate archive, several restoration facilities and an unparalleled parts inventory.
At 63, Marcus Breitschwerdt can comfortably be described as a veteran of the organisation, having led numerous Mercedes-Benz divisions around the globe. As Executive Vice President he is now responsible for every aspect of the company’s heritage activities and reports directly to Ola Källenius, Chief Executive Officer of Mercedes-Benz Group AG.
‘I joined the company almost 35 years ago as a controller through the management trainee programme’, Breitschwerdt begins. ‘From there I worked my way up to market analyst, spent a long period in corporate strategy, became assistant to the head of corporate strategy, before taking over External Affairs, which essentially meant responsibility for all the political stuff. After that I was given responsibility for product strategy and the product portfolio.’
‘At that point I wanted to move abroad with my young family, as had always been the plan. That gave me the opportunity to take over Mercedes-Benz Canada. It was a wonderful place to live as a family, but from a business perspective it turned into quite the drama. It was 2003, when the first outbreak of SARS struck Toronto, Hong Kong and China and nobody really knew what it was at the time. It was not as contagious as Covid, but far more deadly. The economy almost came to a standstill and so did many business activities.’
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