It was not by chance that the then 24-year-old Bruno Sacco found his way to Stuttgart in 1958. The “Stylistics” department had been created only a few years beforehand. The initially quite small department was first headed by Friedrich Geiger. The department’s responsibilities were clearly defined: to oversee design processes of new Mercedes-Benz cars and formulate guidelines for their design. But since formal continuity is not something that can grow overnight, the designers continued at first to rely on their sense of style. Such form-defining experiments, however, did not find their way into production vehicles, only racing sports cars.

During the first year of his learning phase, Bruno Sacco saw how designers at Mercedes-Benz succumbed to the magical pull of a fashion trend. The Mercedes-Benz W 111 series sedans, introduced in 1959, sported tailfins, as had Ghia’s pioneering “Gilda” study at the Turin Motor Show of 1955. Virtually every North American brand adopted this design element for its future new models, before later abandoning it with equal alacrity. Later, in 1961, the learning process at Mercedes-Benz resulted in a coupe version of this series, which was not only one of the most beautiful Mercedes-Benz cars ever built, but for many experts one of the most attractive cars produced by any manufacturer. In particular, the design of the C pillars, rear screen and rear end would justify this view.

The tailfin models from the upper category were superseded in 1965 by the Mercedes-Benz 250 S, 250 SE, 300 SEb and long-wheelbase 300 SE models from the W 108 and W 109 series. These were very similar in terms of their technological design. These new models’ design did without any fads of fashion, stating its point through simple elegance. These highly successful models were built until 1972, after which time they were superseded by the W 116 S-Class.

Under the guidance of the ingenious Béla Barényi, the design of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars began to integrate safety features that secured for the brand a lasting competitive advantage. Together they produced numerous safety bodies for study purposes. The so-called safety occupant cell with front and rear crumple zones was incorpo-rated into series production of the “tailfin models” from the 111 series.

The Mercedes-Benz 230 SL of 1963, styled by Sacco, also followed Barényi’s recommendations, achieving immortality as the so-called Pagoda. The hardtop design that gave the car its familiar name made access to the sporty two-seater more comfortable and also provided structural rigidity for protection in the event of a rollover. Although it appears the design of his concave-convex roof was purely functional, it actually came about through aerodynamic research.

The milestones in Mercedes-Benz design between 1960 and 1970 were the C 111-I and C 111-II. These experimental vehicles never reached the production stage, but they remain impressive examples of the creative power of Mercedes-Benz design. They owed their existence to the complete freedom the designers were given to ignore all conventional forms. Some of the lines and design details eventually found their way much later into series models.

Mercedes-Benz’s experimental safety vehicles from the 1970s expressed what was on the mind of the automotive world during that period – for what people were calling for in the USA, Mercedes-Benz’s biggest market, was maximum passenger safety. A vehicle from this series, the ESF 22 from 1974, now has a place in the Mercedes-Benz Museum as an important historical document; this car was based on the S-Class of 1972.