Encounters – Women of the Star

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Editorial of Ursula Schwarzenbart, Director Global Diversity Office, Daimler AG
Dear Readers
With this magazine, we hope to be able to give you a whole new perspective on the world of Mercedes-Benz – one that is all about women. For women have been a major influence on our brand since its very early days – just as a start, let’s remind ourselves of Bertha Benz, Louise Sarazin and of course Mercédès Jellinek. Today, women are more important than ever to the success of Daimler AG. Gender diversity is not this season’s hot topic, but a strategic success factor. This is why in the future you’ll be seeing more and more women taking over the controls at Mercedes-Benz. Our aim is that, by 2020, one in five managers within the Daimler Group will be a woman. Women will hold 20 per cent of senior management positions across our global organisation. For comparison purposes: that figure in 2005 was just five per cent.
Admittedly, given the nature of the automotive sector, this is a very ambitious target; but it is one that is absolutely vital. Indeed, recent surveys have revealed that companies with a higher proportion of female managers and mixed teams enjoy a better than average level of economic success. More and more of our customers too, are female. The number of women buying our products is also set to rise still further going forward, since the greatest opportunities for growth over the coming years lie in the diversity both of the markets and of our customers.
In order to sustain our leadership role in the automotive industry and our culture of pioneering innovation, we need to have the right people on board. The advancement of women’s careers was therefore one of the priorities of the Diversity Management programme that was embedded across our organisation in 2005. The implementation of this cultural change has been supported through a wide range of measures, including for example flexible working patterns, the provision of crèche facilities and the TANDEM mentoring programme, which has already proved successful in encouraging women to aspire to more senior management roles.
The success speaks for itself: the proportion of women in management is increasing, year by year. However, this cultural shift towards a more heterogeneous employee base should not apply only at management levels. We would like to see far more ‘mixed’ teams being created in all parts of the company.
This magazine introduces you to seven women who hold very varying positions and work in quite disparate parts of the company. They include a woman on the Board of Management, a senior designer and a project manager on the engineering development team, as well as a woman working in the field of future research and a female mechatronics trainee. All of them are determined to help shape the future of the Mercedes-Benz brand.
I hope you will enjoy reading about, and perhaps be inspired by getting to know, some of the women who work for the three-pointed star.
Ursula Schwarzenbart
Director Global Diversity Office, Daimler AG

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Interview with Member of Daimler Board of Management Dr Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt
Conviction. More Self-Confidence.
There are only a few like her at the very top. Dr Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt belongs to the small group of women on company boards in the automotive industry. In February 2011, the Doctor of Law was appointed to the Daimler AG board and is responsible for the newly created area of Integrity and Legal Affairs. She talks about women in executive suites dominated by men, about rules and the power of persuasion.
In the 125-year history of Daimler, you are the first woman to sit on the management board and one of only a few female board members in any DAX company. How has this been for you?
Very good, everyone has been friendly and open. And it’s nothing new for me as a woman to work in an environment dominated by men. When I did my law degree in Tübingen, we were only a handful of women out of 180 first-year students. It was the same in my professional life, for example when I was the Minister of Justice in Hessen or working in the Federal Constitutional Court as a judge.
Are you satisfied with the advancement of women at Daimler?
I was extremely pleased to discover what measures already exist in the group to ensure the advancement of women. Mentoring programmes, part-time working arrangements and childcare are part of an established support network at Daimler, in order to achieve our stated objective of increasing the proportion of women in leading executive positions to 20 per cent worldwide by 2020. In a company with lots of engineering professions, in which men are disproportionately represented in the degree courses, this is a very ambitious goal. The appraisals and bonuses of executive managers hinge on achieving it. That is a clear incentive.
What would you advise young women starting out on their career? What qualities do they have to show?
Basically, the formula for success is the same for women as it is for men. If you can prove your worth through your skills and your personality, you are best-placed to succeed. In my opinion, it is equally important to be single-minded. And particularly for women I would like to add: to have more self-confidence! If you believe you can reach your goals, others will believe you too.
Did you, or do you have female role models?
I am impressed by successful women such as Jutta Limbach who have stayed true to themselves, who are known for being straightforward, who do not hide their femininity and who campaign for gender equality.
At Daimler, you are now responsible for the newly created area of Integrity and Legal Affairs. What is particularly important to you in this regard and what goals have you set yourself?
My job is to make sure that legislation and internal regulations are complied with, and that compliance follows out of conviction, not necessity. It’s important to me that we don’t simply follow rules because, say, sanctions are threatened, but because of an innate feeling of wanting to do what’s right. Rules don’t just limit us; they give us scope to work within these limits. Rules are necessary for fair play – in private as well as business life.
What principles are important to you personally? What are you guided by?
My fundamental principles are to respect everyone’s personality and to be tolerant to those who think differently to you. Moreover, I believe it’s very important to act responsibly, to be ambitious and straightforward, and to
have a caring approach.
How significant is compliance for a multinational company such as Daimler AG?
Sustained business success and business ethics are two sides of the same coin. We are convinced that shared values provide a better path to shared value creation. Because of varying legislation in different countries, multinational companies require universally applicable values and standards of behaviour.
How do you deal with differing views on integrity, business ethics and legal requirements in Europe, the USA and Asia? How is it possible for a globally operating company to reconcile these?
Our corporate culture is a cornerstone of our day-to-day business. It establishes a foundation of shared values and fosters a common appreciation of right and wrong among our employees. Only those who adopt a systematic approach to business ethics will survive in today’s competitive global environment. And, of course, we comply all applicable and international laws and guidelines.
Are you interested in cars? What was your first car? And what do you drive now?
Of course, I’ve always enjoyed driving cars. My first car was a Beetle, which was followed by plenty of others, including several Mercedes. My last car was a red BMW. And now, I got into a Daimler car again, in an S-Class Mercedes. Not only is my car very convenient, but it’s also a pleasure to drive.
Portrait of Dr Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt
Dr Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt was born in Leipzig in April 1950. She studied law in Tübingen and started her legal career in 1975 as a lecturer in social law at the University of Hamburg. In 1977, she became a researcher at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main, where she gained her doctorate in 1979.
In the 1980s, Hohmann-Dennhardt worked as a judge at various social courts in Hessen and as Frankfurt’s councillor for social affairs, young people and housing. She moved into regional politics in 1991, first becoming the Hessen Minister of Justice and then from 1995 the Minister of Science and the Arts. In 1999, she was appointed to the Federal Constitutional Court, where she ruled on many important proceedings before her departure in 2011. These included the equal recognition of family work and employment, the Civil Partnerships Act, the ‘secret paternity test’, the right of single mothers to childcare support and the Transsexuals Act. Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt is married and has two children.

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Bertha Benz & Co. – The Beginnings
Prelude. Seduced to the Right of Way.
In 1886, working independently of one another, Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler invented the automobile. The male-dominated world of the time was initially sceptical, however, and did not see any future for this self-propelled carriage. The steam railway alone was considered the new mode of land-based transport. Only through the enterprise of two strong-willed women did this revolutionary invention make its breakthrough. And time and time again, it was women who accomplished pioneering feats with the motor car, thereby changing the world forever.
Women, the fairer sex, the ones who shouldn’t get their hands dirty, and who don’t know the first thing about business, let alone about engineering. This commonly held view of women in the late 19th century could hardly apply less to Bertha Benz und Louise Sarazin. On the contrary: they were the vanguard of the automotive revolution.
Bertha Benz and the maiden long-distance car journey
Bertha Benz firmly believed in her husband Carl’s dream of a ‘horseless carriage’. She was always encouraging him, and giving him new resolve when he longed to give up on seemingly unsolvable problems. But that’s only half the story. The daughter of a well-to-do master carpenter also used her dowry to support her husband’s plans, and even helped out in the garage. She painstakingly wound countless induction coils by hand for the engine ignitions.
On 29 January 1886, Carl Benz filed a patent for his ‘petrol-driven vehicle’. But success eluded him at first. No one wanted to buy the world’s first motor car. Whereas the engineering genius was plagued by self-doubts, his visionary wife continued to believe in the future of the automobile. Demonstrating her unshakable courage and determination, she took the Benz patent motor car on its first long-distance journey – from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back again – in August 1888, without the knowledge of her husband and accompanied by their sons Eugen and Richard.
This made her the first person in automotive history to go on a long-distance journey. The trip also represented the motor car’s first endurance test and its first promotional drive. Out of necessity, Bertha Benz also became the world’s first car mechanic. Along the way, she had to use a hatpin to unblock the clogged carburettor, and she insulated a burnt-out wire on the camshaft using one of her garters. Once safely back in Mannheim, she told her husband the car needed one more gear for hills.
With so much girl power involved, it’s no wonder one of the first people to buy a ‘Benz’ was also a woman – a teacher from Hungary. As she could not afford the car on her own, she shared her excitement with a colleague, who helped out with the purchase.
Louise Sarazin and the breakthrough of the combustion engine
Gottlieb Daimler, too, owed the breakthrough of his fast-running vehicle engine to a woman – a Frenchwoman to be precise, Louise Sarazin. In 1888, she assumed responsibility for selling Daimler engines in France. Her husband had recently died and had asked her to continue to distribute Daimler’s invention in France. Gottlieb Daimler put his trust in her, and he was repaid handsomely.
Louise Sarazin held her own in the male-dominated business world, and worked hard to persuade people of the new engine’s merits and its possible uses in private transport. In February 1889, Daimler and Sarazin signed a contract that finally sealed the introduction of the automobile in technology-loving France. An astute businesswoman, Madame Sarazin encouraged the series production of Daimler vehicle engines. Which is why the worldwide success story of a wholly German invention actually began in France.
Mercedes and the motor racing triumphs
Impressed by the self-propelled carriages, the male-dominated world demanded ever faster and more powerful vehicles and out of this was born a passion for racing. A woman’s name led the field in the burgeoning arena of motor sport – Mercedes. Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft introduced this name for their cars in 1900 at the request of the Nice-based Austrian businessman Emil Jellinek, who sold Daimler cars and registered them for racing events. It was a term of affection for his eldest daughter. To this day, Mercedes-Benz is still the only automotive brand which has a girl’s name.
The first car to bear this evocative Spanish name, the Mercedes 35 PS, created a sensation in March 1901 at the Nice Racing Week. And not only because it won several races at a canter thanks to its superior engineering, but also because of its exceptionally elegant design, which more than did justice to the name. Mercedes means ‘grace’ or ‘gracefulness’ in Spanish. Regarded as the first modern car, the Mercedes 35 PS with its progressive vehicle design became the model for the entire automotive industry. Paul Meyan, who was then general secretary of the French Automobile Club, said after the Racing Week: “We have entered the era of Mercedes.”
Ever since, the Mercedes name – which was changed to Mercedes-Benz in June 1926 after the merger of Daimler and Benz – has been both an expression and a commitment of the brand. Like no other automotive manufacturer, Mercedes-Benz understands how to unite the feminine attributes of beauty and elegance with the masculine qualities of performance and engineering.
The first driver’s licence and the first speeding ticket
And even beyond Benz and Daimler, it was women who were writing automotive history. The first person ever to pass a driving test was the French duchess Anne d’Uzès in 1898. She was also the first person to be fined for driving too fast. In the Bois de Boulogne near Paris, she drove at 15 km/h instead of the 12 km/h that was allowed. “At first, I didn’t want any of these vulgar, rackety motor cars. But then I discovered what great fun it was to drive one,” said the Duchess. The first German driver’s licence was issued to Amalie Hoeppner, who passed her driving test in 1909 in Leipzig.
The first women’s car clubs were established as early as the late 19th/early 20th century. Their members held meetings to plan joint car journeys and to discuss how the car could be made safer and more comfortable to drive. In this way, the so-called fairer sex had an influence on engineers and designers right from the start.
Clärenore Stinnes and the first round-the-world car journey
The first round-the-world journey in a car began on 25 May 1927 in Frankfurt. Behind the wheel was the industrialist’s daughter Clärenore Stinnes, who was then the most successful female racing driver in Europe. She was accompanied by a truck, two mechanics and the man who would later become her husband, photographer Carl-Axel Söderström. After two years and one month, she crossed the finishing line in her Adler Standard 6 at the Avus track in Berlin. Her car had 46,758 kilometres on the clock.

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Interior Designer Nicola Ehrenberg-Uhlig
Sensuality. Beauty in the Smallest Part.
Mercedes-Benz is the only premium automotive brand that dares to be feminine. Beauty, timeless elegance and a strong emotive appeal – its innovative technology always comes packaged in a sensuous body. Both together set men’s pulses racing. But as we all know, beauty is more than skin-deep. “To achieve perfection and to have more than just fleeting popularity, a beautiful body also needs a beautiful soul,” says Nicola Ehrenberg-Uhlig, designer of car interiors.
Unlike in exterior design, around 30 per cent of the creatives working in interior design at Mercedes-Benz are women. One of them is Nicola Ehrenberg-Uhlig. “Women have a greater awareness than men of material quality, colour schemes and the finer details of workmanship. In the joint purchase of a car, it’s not for nothing that they often have the final say on trim and fittings. So it’s only logical that the interiors should be designed by women as well,” says the head of Conceptual Design Team Color & Trim. Since 2007, she has been responsible for the interior equipment and fittings of the major model series. The latest SLK roadster and the new M-Class are among the interiors designed by her and her team, which comprises three women and one man.
It’s what’s inside that counts
“It’s just the same for cars as it is for people,” says Ehrenberg-Uhlig, who originally trained as an haute couture designer. “The outside should look great, attract attention and turn heads. Long-term popularity, however, depends mainly on what’s inside. Only when the inside and outside go together perfectly, can initial infatuation turn into heartfelt, enduring love.” This is why one of the fundamental rules of Mercedes-Benz design is that the beauty, style and grace of the exterior have to be reflected in absolute harmony by the interior. In other words, the promises made by the outside have to be kept by the inside – and brought even closer to perfection through the use of exclusive materials and details.
A striking example of this philosophy is the new SLK roadster. Nicola Ehrenberg-Uhlig and her team have developed a design and equipment concept for its interior that offers a highly distinctive continuation of the sleek, sporty exterior. This includes trim pieces on the door openers and centre console either in brushed aluminium or a choice of high-gloss, dark-brown burr walnut or high-gloss black ash, as well as electroplated circular air vents designed to evoke the dynamism of aviation. Other stand-out features are the leather or nappa leather seat covers, which reflect the sun’s rays and noticeably reduce how hot the surfaces can get. The stitching on the seats is in a contrasting colour to the leather, which further emphasises the sense of exclusivity and the sporty look. “It’s the attention to detail that creates a strong impact,” says the 44-year-old – diminutive in stature but not in her sense of humour.
From haute couture to automotive design
Her eyes light up when she talks about her work: “It’s just so much fun coming up with new interior concepts and ideas for new materials, and creating a harmonious overall look in keeping with the exterior design, which gives every vehicle model an individual and highly expressive character.”
The route she took to her current job was anything but linear. After finishing school, she studied journalism at university. But this was too theoretical for her and did not match her true talents. So she switched to the fashion industry and did an apprenticeship as an haute couture dressmaker. Here, she discovered her love for design and developed a passion that endures to this day for being creative with shapes, colours and exclusive materials. After working in a fashion design studio and as a costume designer for the theatre, she did a degree in design, first at the Utrecht School of the Arts in the Netherlands and then in Pforzheim, Germany. She has worked for Mercedes-Benz since 2000.
The switch from fashion to car design was not difficult for her. “The idea of haute couture is to make the body look as good as possible and to bring out its personality. It’s exactly the same for a car,” she explains. Particular features such as an eye-catching seam pattern or a captivating contrast between silk matt and high-gloss surfaces decorate an exclusive car interior in the same way as a dress. There’s just one important difference – and it’s one that gives Nicola Ehrenberg-Uhlig immense pleasure. “As an automotive designer, you have so much more time than you do in fashion to develop details and to hone the quality and perfection until you are able to stand 100 per cent by your work – and that is a luxury for a designer.”
Design creates an emotional habitat
For around two years, she has been working with her team on the design of an interior for a new model series – and she has to look far into the future to do this. It’s essential to maintain the allure of the vehicle over a period of many years. Whereas fashion mostly serves short-lived trends and is therefore highly transient, the design of all Mercedes-Benz vehicles focuses on an attractive modern appeal und longevity. Showboating and trends have no chance. “The interior equipment and fittings,” says the passionate mountain climber, “have to keep the customers excited over a number of years, to create a lasting emotional connection – a home from home, if you will. We see our job as creating living spaces. After all, our customers spend a lot of time in their cars.” Against the hectic backdrop of our mobile society, the interior of a vehicle more than ever before has to cater for relaxation, security, enjoyment and the feel-good factor.
For this reason, Mercedes-Benz has made it its mission to make improvements to the interiors of all model series. Or as the designer puts it: “We want to celebrate high quality and consummate workmanship, to make customers see, touch and feel this, and to bring a proud smile to their lips whenever they sit in a Mercedes-Benz.” A current example is the new M-Class. Ehrenberg-Uhlig and her team have brought the quality of the interior, whose design was previously more functional in character, up to the standard of a luxury-class saloon.
Trim parts made from unpolished aluminium or exclusive real woods, finely crafted switches in silver chrome and exclusive applications create a feel-good ambience just as in the S-Class. The dashboard design blends seamlessly into the door trim, creating a wrap-around effect that conveys a feeling of security. For further customisation, the designer has created a range of materials as well as various colour options in warm tones – from black, almond beige and alpaca grey to tobacco brown. “The result is an understated, but very sporty look which is no way aggressive or loud.” Refined sportiness, as the Mercedes-Benz designer calls her new design concept.
Advancing through persistence and persuasiveness
Designing the interior of a car is like creating an entire collection. The seasoned designer chooses which colours, material and leather qualities, woods, metals or even stone such as granite match the character of each model and develops an overall concept with numerous variants for customisation. The attention to detail that goes into this knows no bounds. Even the stitching on the seats or leather steering wheel has to have a colour and pattern that fits in perfectly with the overall aesthetic.
To achieve this, she works closely with her colleagues from technical development. Of course, there can sometimes be areas of friction. “Everyone,” she says, “has their ideas and products which they want to see incorporated into a vehicle. Sometimes these fit in with each other, sometimes they don’t. You have to fight your corner. It’s more difficult for women, the higher up they get – there is something to that. But on the other hand, if you are the only woman in meetings, you get much more attention and it’s up to the individual to take advantage of this. A solution will always present itself if you bring persistence, persuasiveness and sound arguments to the table.”
Asked about her favourite Mercedes, she barely hesitates. “All those that I fitted out,” she laughs. “So much hard work and passion goes into each one, and I can’t wait until it finally hits the road.” When she signs off a model, it takes one to two years for it to appear on the ‘catwalk’. Another big difference to fashion, “which took me a while to get used to”. And she has plenty to be excited about in the next couple of years. At the beginning of 2012, the new SL-Class roadster will make its world premiere, and the new S-Class will be launched in 2013. “The new S-Class is an absolute dream in terms of quality and workmanship.” That’s all she’s prepared to say.

Interview with Nicola Ehrenberg-Uhlig
Interior Design of the Future.
Nicola Ehrenberg-Uhlig heads up Conceptual Design Team Color & Trim for Mercedes-Benz vehicle interiors. As part of a four-strong team, she develops interior equipment and fittings for the S-Class and M-Class, the CLS Coupé and for all sports cars and roadsters. She also created the design and equipment lines for the Concept A-CLASS, which offers a glimpse of how the new A-Class will look.
Would a Mercedes-Benz designed exclusively by woman look different?
No, I don’t think so. The look of a Mercedes-Benz has always had something feminine about it, and is – outside too – designed with a lot of attention to detail. As a woman, of course I stand by each individual model. But the process of how we get there would perhaps be different, because women generally go about things in a more playful and fun way.
How will interior design at Mercedes-Benz develop in the future?
The interplay between elegance and engineering that has made Mercedes-Benz stand out for as long as anyone can remember will become even more of a focus inside the vehicle. High-grade traditional materials such as leather are being combined with contrasting high-tech elements. This will raise the already superior quality of the workmanship. We will be creating an exciting and highly emotive connection between the traditional and the modern.
Can you give us an example?
Our Concept A-CLASS, which we unveiled at the Shanghai motor show in April 2011, illustrates this perfectly. For it, we combined light-beige nubuck leather with metallised leather and a translucent vapour-plated fabric which stretches over the dashboard and the centre console. The dashboard and centre console themselves have no conventional base, but are instead made of only brushed aluminium which is visible through the transparent high-tech textile lining. This makes the instrument panel look as if it’s hovering in thin air. Then there are the magenta-red accents in the seams and in the ambient lighting as well as innovative, 3-D graphics for the contents of the display. The overall impression is a unique combination of typical Mercedes elegance with high perceived quality and modern, sporty lightness. And precisely this is for me the Mercedes world of tomorrow.
Does outstanding workmanship also mean an outstanding finish?
Absolutely. The piano lacquer, for example, which we offer in the S-Class and CLS, is craftsmanship at its best. Up to seven layers of paint are applied and then polished to achieve the desired high-gloss finish. And the leather tailored covers for the dashboard are stitched together by hand. Only then are they inserted into the machine that fills them with high-grade foam.
Should design polarise or should it please everyone?
I’d even go as far as saying that design has to polarise. If everyone likes it, it can’t really have an emotive appeal and so has no future.

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Olfactory Expert Claudia Schempp
Well-Being. Love at First Sniff.
You smell so good! The chemistry that makes us fall in love works the same way in cars. “Just like in human relationships, our sense of smell greatly determines whether we feel at ease in a car,” says Claudia Schempp. To make sure every new Mercedes-Benz has a pleasant odour, the olfactory expert sniffs each individual material used in the interior. She is on the Mercedes-Benz ‘nose team’ together with three other women and two men. They have the final say on what goes in the car.
For 25 years, Claudia Schempp has been hot on the trail of offensive odours, helping to ensure that every Mercedes-Benz vehicle has a pleasant smell. Using her nose as a measuring device, she analyses all the materials which are used to make parts inside the car – from plastics, paints, fabrics and natural fibres to leather, woods, waxes and rubber.
Each material has its own distinctive smell. And Schempp knows them all. She is able to identify materials by their odour, and can even distinguish between different types of plastic. Polyurethane, for example, smells different to polypropylene. “That is a talent, but not a god-given one,” says Sindelfingen-born Schempp, who originally trained as a chemistry lab assistant. “You can train your nose.” Every one of us has the ability to distinguish between up to 10,000 odours. “The difficulty is that we don’t really know how to identify them properly, which means we don’t pick up on them. Because I sniff each individual material again and again, I know exactly what it smells like.”
Smell first – then touch
Schempp had a keen nose even as a child. “My family said I used to always smell everything first before I touched or ate it. I had no idea at all that I was doing this.” Instinctively, she had made her sense of smell her primary instrument for sensory perception. Long before she looks at something, she will already have smelt it.
Her sensitive nose had already come to the attention of material engineers at Mercedes-Benz, where Claudia Schempp temped as a student in the holidays. After completing her apprenticeship as a chemistry laboratory assistant, she joined Mercedes-Benz in 1986 and has worked ever since in production and materials engineering. One of her most important jobs is odour assessment, otherwise known as olfactics.
Evocative and emotive – the power of smell
The odour of a new car should be neither overpowering nor unpleasant. Smells go straight from the nose to the brain and provoke an immediate emotional reaction. Reasoning just doesn’t come into it. “People experience so much through their noses. Our sense of smell more than any other has the power to make us feel happy or at ease,” says the professional sniffer.
The first thing we do when we get into a car is breathe in the odour. It’s an unconscious action and it happens before we have the chance to look around or to see what something feels like. “If an odour is irritating, it takes away from all the other positive sensory impressions, no matter how exclusive these might be. It makes us feel uneasy.” This is scientifically proven. In the hierarchy of comfort, smell is the foundation upon which the subjective sense of wellbeing is based.
A-star for odour
Mercedes-Benz has carried out an odour test since 1992. The test was standardised by the Association of the German Automotive Industry and is continuously being improved. Claudia Schempp and her fellow olfactory experts take a sample of every single material that is to be used inside a new vehicle. They put this sample in a household, odour-free canning jar, which is then sealed and heated for two hours at 80 degrees Celsius. This is the temperature that can be reached inside a car if it is left in the blazing sun. And odours become stronger when it gets hot. The testers then cool the jars down to 60 degrees, ready for the ‘sniffing’ to begin.
Each tester lifts the lid up slightly, smells the air inside the glass and writes down a mark for the strength and quality of the smell. The final result is the mean value of all the marks. Obviously, this is something that cannot be rushed. “Depending on the intensity of the odours, the nose needs an hour or two’s rest after every six to ten jars, otherwise proper assessments are no longer possible.”
The assessment scale corresponds to the German school grades system, i.e. from one to six. A grade-one odour is ‘not noticeable’ (e.g. glass, metals, stones), three indicates an ‘obvious and distinctive, but not unpleasant smell’ and six is ‘unbearable’. Everything in the grade range from one to three passes the test. Materials that fare worse cannot be used in the vehicle. It’s then up to the supplier to make improvements. If the material passes a re-test, that test result becomes mandatory. “From that point forward, the material in question has to always smell the same. The supplier can no longer change the composition of the material or its manufacturing process,” explains Schempp.
Get in and feel at ease
In order to test the odour produced by the interaction of all the various materials, the experts quite literally stick their noses into the finished vehicle before it goes into series production. Four of them jump in, close the doors and have a good sniff. “By gauging the overall impression, we make sure that the various components do not create an unpleasant smell when mixed together. We also check that no one odour is too strong and therefore overpowering.” The only smell that people should be aware of in a Mercedes-Benz is that of leather. If any other odour is too strong, the ‘nose team’ have to find out where it is coming from. The material in question then has to be replaced.
The odour experts also carry out an olfactometric test. For this, the interior of the vehicle – with all its doors and windows closed – is warmed up by large heaters. Using a bag, the specialists take an odour sample of the ambient air. This bag is then attached to an olfactometer, a special device for measuring smells, and diluted with pure, odourless air before being smelt by a group of test subjects. As soon as they smell something, they have to press a button. During the test cycle, the air in the bag is diluted to an increasing extent. “Testing in this way gives us a measurement of when the smell inside the vehicle becomes noticeable and how strong it is perceived to be,” says Schempp.
The aim is to create a pleasant smell that is as neutral as possible. “We want our customers to be able to get in and feel immediately at ease.” There cannot be an odour-free interior. Just as there cannot be a standardised odour, because the interior fittings and therefore also the composition of the materials is different in every Mercedes-Benz model.
No perfume, no deodorant and definitely no garlic!
When the ‘nose team’ has a day of smelling ahead of them, certain sacrifices do have to be made. Strong-smelling foods such as garlic and onions are no-nos, as are perfumes, aftershaves, deodorants and scented shower gels. “These kinds of smells can distract the other team members and can also affect your own perception,” explains Schempp. Smokers automatically rule themselves out as odour testers because the smoke they inhale dulls the olfactory nerves.
Claudia Schempp carries out other ‘material tests’ privately and also engages in her passion at home, where she is the mother of a 14-year-old daughter: “Cooking is a big part of my life, and I love herbs and spices, especially all the different exotic spices.” Schempp never stops training her sense of smell. The goal is to be able to tell one scent from another and recognise it again – and to learn which ‘aromatic notes’ go particularly well together to make a delicious dish. It seems the way to her heart is through her nose rather than her stomach!
Interview with Claudia Schempp
Always follow your nose.
Claudia Schempp has made her talent her profession – a talent which even the most advanced piece of technology cannot replace. Her highly tuned sense of smell ensures that customers can fully enjoy the exclusive look and feel of a Mercedes-Benz.
Do women have a more sensitive nose?
There’s nothing to say that women should have a better sense of smell than men. But from my experience, women have a greater interest in scents and respond negatively to unpleasant smells more quickly than men.
Why is that?
Maybe it’s because women have always had more to do with preparing food. For example, women once had to use smell to establish whether something was safe for their children to eat. And women generally feel more comfortable when they have a pleasant smell around them. Which is why it tends to be women rather than men who use a scent.
Given your sensitive nose and your expertise, could you work as a perfumer?
Not straight away. I would have to completely retrain my nose to distinguish between the many hundreds of different scents and to recognise each one again.
Have there ever been times you have wanted to just turn off your nose and not
be able to smell any more?
Well, now and then maybe. But I really love to use my smell of smell, and having a sensitive nose is something that gives me a lot of pleasure. There are unpleasant smells, of course. But in my private life, I generally try to steer clear of these by holding my breath and escaping as fast as I can. If, say, my daughter is going crazy with deodorant and hairspray in the morning, I beat a hasty retreat from the bathroom. It all smells far too strong.
Do you sometimes take an instant dislike to people because of their smell?
That has definitely happened before. There are people whose overall body smell I find extremely unpleasant. It doesn’t matter how nice that person is, there’s nothing I can do. On the other hand, I can meet someone with no dress sense at all, but if they smell good, they’re okay with me.
What scents do you like the most?
I’m a big fan of woody scents, but also like things like cinnamon and vanilla. They remind me of my younger days, of the smell of baking. By the way, smells are much better at bringing back memories than pictures or sounds. That’s been scientifically proven. I also take great pleasure in smells that have a hint of leather, which conveys a sense of exclusivity in a very subtle way. The downside is that I can’t walk past an Italian shoe shop without going inside!
Do you have a particular scent in your car?
No. I drive an A-Class and I am perfectly happy with its rather neutral smell. So far, I haven’t thought about having a special fragrance. But what I would never do to my nose is have those tree-shaped air fresheners that you find in the shops. The smell is far too strong and overpowering.
Could an electronic measuring device ever replace the human nose?
No. I can’t imagine there ever being a device that could even come close to matching the quality and sensitivity of the human nose. Sure, for quality control purposes it’s a good idea to monitor whether odour standards are being complied with in products such as cosmetics, spices and food. But no electronic nose is capable of grading an odour or judging its quality from the signal it has detected. And that’s exactly where we come in.

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Dr Doris Bernhardt, Project Manager Car Development
Passion. The Birth of a New Star.
Her world revolves around the stars of the future – and her attention is focused in particular on the ‘Little Dipper’ constellation. Over recent years, Dr Doris Bernhardt has been responsible for the emergence of the new generation of Mercedes-Benz compact cars: the new B-Class, available since November 2011. As head of the testing department, she was the ‘mother’ of the secret ‘test mules’, as the prototypes of new models are known.
Doris Bernhardt has been at home in the world of automotive development for 20 years, carving out a reputation for herself in the industry as an experienced project manager. Mercedes-Benz recruited her to work in its passenger car development department at the Sindelfingen plant in 2008. Her first project was a very special challenge: working on the development of the completely redesigned B-Class.
Working in the complete vehicle testing department for the A-/B-Class, the materials engineering graduate assumed responsibility for an already established team of 25 men, none of whom had had a woman boss before. Any initial concerns were quickly allayed. “The boys were just great. They accepted me straight away and supported me in every respect,” Doris Bernhardt says enthusiastically. A likeable woman, she combines ambition and commitment with a calm, composed and confident approach.
Testing prototypes from the customer’s point of view
For almost three years, she has been testing the prototypes and pre-production models for the new B-Class with her team. During that time, she has looked at every aspect through the eyes of potential customers. “In the test workshop we look at new vehicles, from the development stage through to production readiness, purely from the customer perspective. We then also approve them from the same perspective,” explains Bernhardt, a native of Freudenstadt in the Black Forest. “From the driving experience, handling and comfort through to perceived quality, we test and evaluate everything to ensure that the needs and requirements of future buyers are met.”
Activities range from testing the engines and transmissions, and checking the suspension comfort, safety assistance systems and air conditioning, to analysing ergonomic aspects such as accessibility of controls and noise levels inside the vehicle.
The goal: perfection down to the smallest detail
On the test rigs at the Mercedes Technology Center (MTC) in Sindelfingen, for instance, the body and chassis of the B-Class were subjected to the most rigorous tests, which simulated the demands over the complete vehicle life in a period of just a few weeks. Powerful forces shook and rattled the body and pulled on the axles, giving the impression that the vehicle would burst at any moment. “The test results show at an early development phase the level of stress at which damage occurs, and at which points too much or too little material has been used on the body,” explains the test leader.
Equally relentless were the systematic long-distance trials in everyday traffic and on test routes. Doris Bernhardt sent the prototypes draped in sheets all over the world for continuous testing under various climatic and road conditions. The engines, for instance, were tested in South Africa, the air conditioning systems under extreme temperatures in the baking hot US state of Texas and Sweden’s cold north, the chassis at a test facility in northern Germany, and part of the electrics and electronics in Japan. The B-Class test mules travelled around eight million kilometres on motorways, country roads, gravel tracks and snow-covered pistes, as well as in slow-moving urban traffic. Some of the test drives were completed by Bernhardt herself.
Every single kilometre was precisely documented. Hundreds of sensors on board the test vehicles analysed the technology in scrupulous detail. Recording temperatures, pressure levels, voltages and engine speeds, they provided a myriad of measurement data that the 50-year-old department head forwarded to the development engineers for further analysis.
And the verdict? “The new B-Class is a successful premium vehicle in the compact category in every respect,” Bernhardt states proudly. “With its new engines, transmissions and assistant systems, it signals the start of a new technological era for compact cars at Mercedes-Benz. Customers will benefit from low fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, as well as even greater driving pleasure, even more space and high-quality comfort in the interior, and even better safety.”
“There’s a little bit of Mercedes-Benz in every vehicle today”
The B-Class is the first compact car in the world to be equipped as standard with a radar-assisted collision warning system with adaptive brake assist, which reduces the risk of a nose-to-tail collision in all traffic situations. Customers can choose from a total of twelve safety systems which have been adopted for the B-Class from larger models –from Active Blind Spot Assist and Lane Keeping Assist through to the tiredness detection system ATTENTION ASSIST and Speed Limit Assist which identifies road signs, to the preventive occupant safety system PRE-SAFE®. Each of these innovative ‘electronic assistant drivers’ represents an important step towards achieving the vision of ‘accident-free driving’ pursued rigorously by Mercedes-Benz.
“No other automotive brand is investing so much effort in the area of vehicle safety or has brought so many decisive innovations onto the market as the company that invented the automobile,” says Bernhardt. Many of the innovations introduced by Mercedes-Benz have established themselves as standard industry practice, from the rigid passenger compartment and the ABS anti-lock braking system to the ESP® Electronic Stability Program. “You could say there’s a little bit of Mercedes-Benz in every vehicle today.”
When asked what else Mercedes-Benz could come up with apart from safety and drive technology, she hit upon an idea straight away: “An automatic boot lid opening that recognises me through a sensor or my voice and opens the lid without me having to put my bags down,” she says laughing. This is something that Mercedes-Benz is already working on, showing once again that the inventor of the automobile places great importance on little details that make drivers’ lives easier and more enjoyable.
Her pet subject is inorganic chemistry
Doris Bernhardt is a woman with a particular passion for technology and science. Since school she has pursued her goals with great determination. When she unexpectedly received a special award for her final examination in Chemistry, she thought, “If that’s the case, then perhaps I should continue to develop this talent of mine.” She studied mineralogy in Karlsruhe, specialising in physical chemistry and materials science. After completing her doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Metal Research in Stuttgart, she faced a choice: chemical industry or automotive industry? She found the decision easy. She had always had a special affinity with cars, even when she was a child. She grew up in a world where terms such as engine speed, horsepower and displacement were commonplace. “My father was a devoted car enthusiast and that probably had an influence on me,” she confesses.
Self-confident and always open to new things, she quickly established a career for herself in the automotive sector, initially working as a materials engineer in the laboratory and then as a project manager. Her desire for new experiences and her enjoyment of work are what drove her to succeed. Although she cannot imagine going back to work in the laboratory, she still has a keen interest in inorganic chemistry. “I still read plenty of specialist publications; it’s simply an incredibly exciting field.”
Crime novels and theatre as a distraction from everyday life
In her spare time she likes to relax by immersing herself in completely different worlds. She loves reading crime novels and is an avid theatre and musical fan. Sadly however, there’s usually not much time left for cultural pursuits. If she had one wish in the world, it would be to come back for a day in 100 years’ time to see what technological progress has been made. “I would like to know how people are getting around then, how they are living and what they are eating, whether they have really made significant progress or whether they’ve actually taken a step backwards,” the scientist reflects, and she’d be happy to go on to have an interesting discussion about progress, the future and the possibility of the existence of life on other planets.
She is personally helping to shape the immediate future, when it comes to drivers and Mercedes-Benz at least – as a project manager for other new stars in the compact segment. She’s not prepared to reveal any more than that.

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Mechatronics Trainee Alexandra Lück
Look. Pretty Clever.
She was at a girls’ school and never wanted to learn a job that involved physics. Now, Alexandra Lück is working almost solely together with male colleagues, cutting thread, drawing wiring diagrams, and getting robots up and running. The 18-year-old is training at Daimler AG to be a mechatronic engineer. Physics and mathematics, amongst other things, are part of her daily life – and she absolutely loves it.
“I would choose this job all over again,” says Bremen-born Alexandra Lück, who is currently in her third year of training. “The fascinating thing about being a mechatronic engineer is combining the two vocations of mechanic and electrician, which covers so many different subjects. There’s something different nearly every day, and that’s what makes it so exciting.”
Although Alexandra Lück, the graduate of a girls’ secondary school, is only one of five women among 60 trainee mechatronic engineers in Mercedes-Benz’s Sindelfingen factory, she does not feel out of place. Quite the opposite, in fact: “I think it’s great doing something that’s not a typical girls’ thing,” she says. It was naturally a pretty big adjustment after school. “When you’ve been around girls for years, it’s very strange to suddenly be surrounded by guys. And getting accepted is much more of a challenge,” she adds. “But once you’ve been accepted as an equal, it’s actually sometimes easier to deal with guys on a day-to-day basis than with girls. You don’t have to watch everything you say, and there are fewer misunderstandings.”
Preferring a boiler suit to a desk
When looking for the right job, Alexandra Lück did various internships when she was at school. Like her friends, she tried out typical careers for women first. “After a week in a kindergarten, I knew teaching wasn’t my thing,” says the self-assured young woman. She then did an internship in a bank. “But sitting at a desk all day was too boring for me.”
The keen archer and skater realised that she preferred manual work, and took up an offer by Daimler AG. It was the summer of 2008, and the automotive company was offering two-day work placements. Alexandra decided on two placements – one as a model-building mechanic and the other as a mechatronic engineer. She thrived in the latter, and after four days she knew: “This is it, this is just what I want to be doing.” She immediately enrolled for training.
Physics – as exciting as a thriller
She doesn’t know the first thing about cars, but for this job she doesn’t need to. The work she does involves plant systems such as assembly lines, lifting platforms and industrial robots. So among other things, she is learning to cut thread for hydraulic systems, drill holes in 1.2-tonne steel plates to attach robots, programme robots, and draw wiring diagrams for governing and control systems. “It’s all extremely interesting and a lot of fun,” Alexandra enthuses. “I never would have thought maths and physics could be so exciting. It’s all about building mechanical, electrical and electronic components and assembling them into complex systems.” Her training will take three-and-a-half years.
Many of the tools required for mechatronics cannot be moved by one employee alone. For example, the bench vices on the milling machine weigh 25 kilogrammes. “We have to tackle it together – we’re a team after all!” laughs the slim, 1.82-metre blonde. And sometimes, when the screws are too tight, she has to take a hammer to them. Alexandra admits that doing this training has made her more confident, more assertive and better able to handle conflict.
A love of technology runs in the family. Her older brother has also trained in mechatronics, but in another company. And her twin sister has trained as a vehicle interior designer, also at Daimler. Outside her job, Alexandra Lück is a typical 18-year-old girl who likes shopping with her friends, reading romance novels and thrillers, and enjoying her first car.
Her first love – the smart fortwo
She had already obtained a driver’s licence at the age of 17 and was eagerly awaiting her 18th birthday, when she could finally drive her dream car – a smart fortwo. “I love the smart, its shape, its charisma and this unique driving sensation,” she says. When she talks about the city runabout, her eyes start to light up.
The big day arrived in August 2011. She got her own smart fortwo – with heated seats. “I really need those,” laughs the prospective mechatronic engineer. Since then, she has not minded quite so much getting up at five o’clock in the morning to drive to work. And perhaps one day, she will turn another dream into reality: to work as a mechatronic engineer at a Mercedes-Benz factory in the USA.
Getting girls excited about technology
Alexandra Lück is one of about eleven per cent of women training in engineering in Daimler AG’s German production plants. Young women can choose from more than 20 different commercial or technical jobs such as mechatronic engineer, vehicle mechatronic engineer or technical model builder.
Daimler is committed to using a variety of methods to get girls interested in technical jobs. During the annual ‘Girls’ Day’, the production locations in Germany open their factory gates. Some 600 girls participate each year to find out more about the different jobs and test their technical skills. Some Daimler locations then offer a one-week internship to those girls who are interested. This is known as ‘Girls’ Week’.
Additionally, Daimler is cooperating closely with schools, especially also with all-girls schools. In autumn 2010, Daimler initiated the national training initiative, ‘Genius – Daimler’s Young Knowledge Community’. In cooperation with the Baden-Wuerttemberg Ministry of Education and the school textbook publisher Klett, Daimler engineers have developed teaching materials on the topic of ‘future mobility’. The engineers are also visiting the schools and talking about their daily working lives. Additionally, a separate website at www.genius-community.com offers interactive applications on science and technology along with information material for parents and teachers.

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Mercedes Racing Driver Susie Wolff
Love. The Ladies’ Passion for Horsepower.
Women and motor racing: this love affair is almost as old as the motor car itself. Long before grid girls became a normal paddock sight in the 1960s, female motorsports enthusiasts challenged men as rivals in road rallies, Grand Prix and even Formula 1 racing. “Adrenaline and competitive spirit know no gender,” says Mercedes racing driver Susie Wolff. She is one of two women in the DTM racing series. The blond power woman is utterly convinced that at some time in the future a woman will again be driving in Formula 1. Maybe even herself.
Susie Wolff, née Stoddart, is a racing driver with all her heart and soul. “I quasi grew up in the paddock,” says the 28-year-old Scotswoman. Her father and maternal grandfather competed in motorcycle races. Consequently her mother is a big motorsports fan as well. At age eight Susie started in her first kart race. In 1996 at age 14 she was kart driver of the year in Great Britain, a title she also won the next three years.
In 2001 speed-crazy Susie, as she refers to herself, celebrated her racing car debut in the Formula Renault Winter Series. After a total of five years in the British Formula Renault and the British Formula 3, Mercedes-Benz brought her to the high-powered DTM international touring car series in 2006. “The day the Mercedes-Benz family took me in was the greatest day of my career,” she reveals. Because racing for this brand with its legendary motorsports history is ‘the best job in the world’ for Susie Wolff.
“I am a racing driver, not a woman in a world of men”
In the DTM the petite Scotswoman weighing just 52 kilogrammes immediately commanded respect with a 10th place finish. In 2011 she and her 500-hp AMG Mercedes C-Class competed against 16 men and one woman, Audi racing driver Rahel Frey. The field of racing drivers in which she had to assert herself also included former Formula 1 drivers Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard, who like her both piloted an AMG Mercedes C-Class. In 2010 she garnered her first four DTM points and finished in the championship standings ahead of both F1 ‘veterans’.
Although she is strong-willed and assertive, Susie Wolff doesn’t feel like a woman in a world of men. “I see myself as a racing driver just like everybody else. I am one of them and want to be accepted as such,” says the ever-cheerful Wolff, who has made Switzerland her home and lives in Ermatingen on the shores of Lake Constance. She has won that acceptance by now. “Of course it wasn’t easy. But I received a lot of support from Mercedes-Benz and have earned the respect of my colleagues through performance and skill.”
Long tradition of successful women racing drivers
Susie Wolff loves the adrenaline, the competition and the determination that winning demands. This places her in a long tradition of ambitious and successful woman racing drivers. As early as in the 1920s woman drivers have made racing history. In 1926 Elisabeth Junek of Prague won the hillclimb Königsaal-Jilowischt on a Bugatti and one year later the Grand Prix of Germany at the Nürburgring in the three-litre sports car category – both while setting new track records. At the same time Ernes Merck was a serious competitor of legendary Mercedes racing driver Rudolf Caracciola. At the risky Klausenpass race in Switzerland in August 1927 she finished a close second behind him. The daughter of an industrialist from Darmstadt was at the time the only professional woman racing driver. She was a factory driver at Mercedes.
The first woman in Formula 1 was Neapolitan Maria Teresa de Filippis in 1958. She finished in tenth place at the Grand Prix of Belgium on her Maserati. 17 years later Lella Lombardi caused a true sensation at the Grand Prix of Spain. The Italian was the only woman to date to finish in the points in the ‘premier racing series’. She finished sixth and was awarded 0.5 championship points.
In the 1990s Ellen Lohr created quite a stir in the DTM. At the Hockenheimring in 1992 the Mercedes driver became the first woman to win a DTM race. Women have created a sensation in rally sport as well. In 1962 Ewy Rosqvist won the Gran Premio Argentino, the world’s toughest road race, in her Mercedes 220 SE. The Swede and her co-driver Ursula Wirth outclassed their male competitors during all six stages of the race that covered a total distance of 4,624 kilometres. The two were the only women’s team on the grid. And last but not least, in 2001 Jutta Kleinschmidt won the legendary Dakar rally driving a Mitsubishi. These are just a few examples of successful woman racing and rally drivers.
“I want to be the second woman to win a DTM race”
These are the footsteps Susie Wolff is following in. “I want to be the second woman after Ellen Lohr to win a DTM race,” says the ambitious Mercedes driver with a confident smile on her lips. She trains hard for that purpose – and for the goal of soon doing some Formula 1 test laps in a Silver Arrow. Racing in Formula 1 is her greatest dream. “But it’s not as if I dream about Formula 1 every night,” she admits. “I want to reach my goal in the DTM first.”
Susie Wolff is sure that a woman will once again make it to the ‘premier class’ of motorsports. “If women can have success in top-tier racing such as the DTM or GP2, then sooner or later the F1 teams won’t be able to pass them by any longer,” she says and adds: “Having a woman in Formula 1 would make motorsports overall much more attractive to young girls.” Because then they’d have a role model to look up to – just like the boys look up to Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher.
Fashionable with a weakness for handbags
The cheerful and rather reserved Susie Wolff pursues her career with single-minded determination. Her motto is: never give up! She wants to win people over with performance and wants to achieve everything on her own power. Her husband Toto Wolff, a shareholder in the Williams Formula 1 racing team and former Austrian racing driver, is behind her one hundred per cent. “He is a tough critic and as an experienced racing driver he gives me tips at times.”
As soon as she dons her helmet she must exhibit strength, be aggressive and fight for every thousandth of a second. “In contrast, privately I am feminine and like to dress stylishly,” says the fashionable DTM pilot, who has a particular weakness for handbags. She finds relaxation in reading and sports. Water skiing, swimming, running and skiing are her passions off the racetrack.
Even though Susie Wolff has petrol in her veins, the racing driver in her never gets the upper hand on public roads. “I live in Switzerland, you have to drive prudently or otherwise it gets pretty expensive,” she says with a laugh. And when travelling with her husband she usually voluntarily relinquishes control of the steering wheel. “It’s more relaxing for both of us because Toto is a truly poor co-driver,” she discloses. The two got married in October 2011 just before the season finale in Hockenheim. It was a small church wedding and Susie was a bride all in white.
The ‘Grandes Dames’ of Mercedes motorsports
Mercedes-Benz backed women in motorsport from very early on – as factory and racing drivers. Three women in particular have made Mercedes-Benz racing history.
Ernes Merck
She embodies the modern, affluent woman of the Twenties – adventurous and with a passion for motor cars. Ernes Merck came from an industrialist family from Darmstadt and was married to factory owner Wilhelm Merck, who shared her passion for racing. In many contests the Mercedes factory woman driver bested a number of proud racing drivers. In 1927 the then 29-year-old started twice in the Klausen race. She finished second with her 180-hp Mercedes in the national competition and third in the international race.
Ewy Rosqvist
Swedish-born Ewy Rosqvist from Ystad was three-time European champion in women rally racing between 1959 and 1961. In 1962 she and her co-driver Ursula Wirth were the only women’s team to compete in the Gran Premio Argentino, considered to be the toughest road race of its time. Before the start, Ewy Rosqvist later wrote in her book ‘A Drive through Hell’, her male competitors tried to persuade her not to participate: “This here is a race that can soften even hard men. Don’t you think you took on a little too much?” But the ladies left the men in the dust of their Mercedes 220 SE during all six stages and secured a fabulous overall victory.
Ellen Lohr
Mönchengladbach-born Lohr came to the DTM via kart and Formula 3 racing. Between 1990 and 1995 she drove with much success for the AMG-Mercedes team in the DTM. At the Hockenheimring in 1992 she became the first woman in DTM history to win a race. After her career as a touring car racing driver the now 46-year-old participated in various truck racing series and rallies driving Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

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Daimler Futurologist Sabine Engelhardt
Promise. The Future is Feminine.
What will be demanded of the car of the future? How will we travel in 20 or 30 years time? Where is society headed, and what does this mean for our quality of life? These are questions that occupy Sabine Engelhardt on a daily basis. She is a futurologist in the Society & Technology Research Group at Daimler AG. Here, innovations in society and engineering are brought together into future concepts, and even brought to life in the form of prototype vehicles. Engelhardt might not be able to see into the future, but at Mercedes she is helping to shape it.
The Rhineland-born futurologist got her job more by accident than design. “It caught me completely by surprise,” says Sabine Engelhardt, who initially trained to be a university librarian in Stuttgart – and then “wanted to do something different”. Something more exciting, but it should still have something to do with books. “My mother was a bookseller, so books have always been part of my life.”
Engelhardt studied information sciences, journalism and philosophy at the Free University of Berlin and worked as a researcher. When she was writing her master’s thesis on artificial intelligence, her professor recommended she turn to Alexander Mankowsky, the trend and future researcher for Daimler AG. It proved to be a life-changing tip. “I went to him actually only wanting to speak about my work, and came out again with a job offer.”
Getting to the heart of the ‘global cities’
For 16 years now, Engelhardt has held a position that doesn’t match any conventional job description. She is an information expert and philosopher who researches the future of the automotive industry. Together with Mankowsky, she tours the ‘global cities’ where innovation and creativity emerge. With a ‘female’ and a ‘male’ view, so to speak, the pair immerse themselves in the different ways of life and go in search of the zeitgeist.
It’s about cultural movements and about societal shifts, about values and desires. They visit exhibitions and trade fairs, museums, fashion shows and shopping centres. “We observe what kind of people are buying what kind of things, what they attach importance to, what moves them and how they live,” explains Sabine Engelhardt. The two colleagues complement each other perfectly. Whereas Alexander Mankowsky has more of an eye for the bigger picture, she concentrates on the detail. “I’m obsessed with details, something you would usually expect from a woman.”
Femininity per se plays a key role in her research. But it’s not about ‘the’ woman as such, because there is no global archetype for what that might be. The focus is much more on femininity in the sense of quality of life, sensuality, beauty and luxury. “The Mercedes brand was characterised by a unique mix of elegance, beauty and engineering excellence right from the start, which is why we are keeping a close eye on femininity and its influence on society and culture.”
Engelhardt believes that precisely this influence will grow in future. “An exciting time is upon us, because European history shows that a culture has always been more prosperous, cultivated and productive if it has also been allowed to be feminine,” says the nature lover and keen early riser. When not on the move somewhere in the world, she gets up at five o’clock in the morning and starts the day by going riding with her three ponies.
The age of womanhood is upon us
Whether in fashion, architecture or cars – for a number of years now, Engelhardt and her colleague have been observing more and more areas of life that offer a new definition of what quality of life means. “People no longer want to constantly keep up with new trends, owning the latest and most glittering product today and throwing it away tomorrow.” Instead, the hunt for the authentic, the one-off piece – preferably signed by hand – is intensifying. Seals of quality such as ‘Made in Germany’ or ‘Made in the USA’ are becoming increasingly important.
“The anonymity of globalisation unsettles people,” says the trend tracker. “They mistrust the goods that surround them and go in search of a lost stability, of enduring values and security.” People want to know where a product comes from, who supplied it, and under what conditions it was made. This trend is particularly apparent in the fashion industry: “Items of clothing by many a designer can be traced back online to the cotton field, or wool from the UK is shown together with a photo of the sheep.” Change is also afoot in the perfume industry. Perfumers, who previously faded into the background in favour of the brand name, are increasingly becoming known by name.
In combination with many other observations, this trend is a clear indication for both future researchers that the first phase of globalisation, which began in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall, is coming to an end. Sabine Engelhardt: “It was a male-dominated phase, characterised by anonymity, conquest and enrichment.”
A new era is beginning as a counter-movement. “And it will be much more feminine,” says Engelhardt. And why? Because the focus will increasingly turn to quality of life expressed in restrained beauty and a reversion to traditional values such as family orientation and trust. “The demand is for products which are eco-friendly but which are also of timeless beauty and of a high quality.” European culture with its appreciation of pleasure, elegance and style will once again be seen as a desirable lifestyle model.
Luxury redefined
According to Engelhardt, this societal change is a good omen for Mercedes-Benz. “Our vehicles correspond exactly to what people are now looking for.” On the one hand, because Mercedes-Benz is regarded worldwide as a symbol of style and elegance and safety. And on the other, because Daimler – thanks in a big way to trend research – has wasted no time in developing a sustainability strategy featuring various drive concepts.
For the new era, this provides an ideal platform for “developing vehicles which match the idea of quality of life expressed in restrained beauty.” The challenge, says the researcher, is to redefine European luxury as a lifestyle factor in a world which is turning ‘green’ – ‘green luxury’ so to speak. For Mercedes-Benz, this means even more eco-friendliness, even better workmanship, higher levels of safety and greater timeless elegance. The new M-Class, for example, is up to 25 per cent more economical than its predecessor. And inside, just as in the new B-Class, there is a new level of luxury to look forward to. “In the next couple of years,” reveals Engelhardt, “in terms of quality and workmanship, we will experience an entirely new definition of luxury in the interior of the new A-Class and the new S-Class.”
Sabine Engelhardt now can’t imagine doing any other job. “This is where I want to be,” she says with great passion. She is a woman with principles, who doesn’t hide or disguise herself. “Business suits are not my world,” she laughs. But Mercedes-Benz, that is her world – even outside of work. Her first driving experience was in a ‘tail fin’ from the 1970s. “That had a big influence on me.” She sees a Mercedes-Benz as the perfect combination of the masculine elements of ‘performance and innovation’ with the feminine traits of ‘beauty and elegance’. Nowadays, she drives her dream car, a 1999 G-Class. A vehicle that is rarely seen today. It’s why she is something of a local celebrity in the Stuttgart region – the ‘woman with the G-Class’.
The fragrance of future research
Since 1995, Sabine Engelhardt has worked as a future researcher in the Society & Technology Research Group of Daimler AG, investigating societal trends and changes. Her field is ‘culture and the car’, the study of how mobility and the zeitgeist interact. Using scientific methods, she analyses shifts in the zeitgeist and long-term societal trends. The findings of her research are incorporated into strategies and products for all brands – Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, smart and AMG.
In this way, for example, Daimler was quick to identify the global shift from ‘eco-friendliness by abstinence’ to ‘greening’ in the sense of ‘green luxury’, and to develop a comprehensive sustainability strategy that offers an optimal solution to people’s varying lifestyles and mobility requirements. The strategy boasts an intelligent mix of vehicles featuring a range of drive concepts – from electric cars for urban driving (smart fortwo electric drive and family-friendly A-Class E-CELL) and fuel-cell vehicles for longer ranges (B-Class F-CELL) to the world’s most economical luxury saloon (S 250 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY) and an electric super sports car (SLS AMG E-CELL), which will be in showrooms in 2013.
Sabine Engelhardt has also drawn on her trend analyses to develop her own product – an atomiser for Maybach unlike any other in the world. At the press of a button, scent is released from the spherical bottle. Engelhardt created two accompanying fragrances with the help of Ursula Wandel, an internationally sought-after perfumer based in Paris. “But obviously, you can also fill it with your own fragrance,” says the researcher. Within months of coming onto the market in April 2010, her spherical atomiser had become one of the top-selling accessories for these high-end saloons.