Mercedes Heritage CEO: “Classic cars are about more than nostalgia”

Goodwood always brings the chance of an unexpected but fruitful encounter, and this year was no different. 

Marcus Breitschwerst is the CEO of Mercedes-Benz Heritage and has held a variety of C-suite roles at Mercedes-Benz over several decades. Even his initials are on brand. Just the man, then, to help the design team (and other departments) channel the core values of the brand, as evidenced by past icons like the Gullwing and early S-Classes.

From the stand at the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the long-time Mercedes man spoke to CDN about the importance of heritage beyond simply celebrating the past and maintaining a huge fleet of historic vehicles.

Car Design News: Marcus, tell us a little bit about your role and how you got into the historic division?

Marcus Breitschwerst: I'm certainly one of the veterans of the company. I started more than 35 years ago in our trainee programme and eventually served as president and CEO of Mercedes Benz in Canada, Europe and the UK, and also the CEO of the van division at one stage.

CDN: You've worn lots of hats.

MB: Yes, and I saw that there are lots of changes happening in the industry, a transformation with new drivetrains, technologies, electrification, connectivity, digitisation and so on. We said that as Mercedes-Benz we should play the cards we have, and one major thing is our heritage as one of the longest lasting car companies in the world. As such we have a chain of core values which will lead into the future and continue throughout changing conditions.

CDN: What does the Heritage division handle exactly?

MB: We have carved out all the parts that are important to our heritage but also important for brand strategy. That includes the museum and the biggest Mercedes-Benz restoration facility in the world, along with our classic centre and event management and put it together as Mercedes-Benz Heritage. As the CEO, I think about heritage in depth and strategically manage brand polishing and positioning. The brand is evolving and is becoming super future-forward and very tech driven. Amid that, we really need to cherish our heritage – to protect it and nurture it.

CDN: How do you do that?

MB: We ask ourselves that, even if everything changes, what makes a Mercedes a Mercedes? Why should people buy Mercedes? And the crucial thing is not that we invented the fast revolving motor, developed the airbag or crumpling side impact zone. The key thing is that the company is built on pioneering spirit, on research for the better solution, on high quality and on timeless design.

In the southern German area we always had to live by the principle that whatever we buy must last for a long time. In the context of the car, you also need to be ahead technologically and in terms of style – almost timeless to a certain degree. And that the quality is unmatched. These core values are independent from specific technologies and trends, and I preach about this to our engineers and to our design department.

I had a meeting with [new head of design] Sebastian Baudy scheduled for 90 minutes or so as an onboarding, and it ended up being six hours. We simply tried to make him aware of what we believe are the core values and what has heavily influenced our designs [over the years] . We are a no-nonsense brand, and our design should mirror that: we do sports cars that can look more aggressive, but we also do everyday cars that request respect while still looking friendly, not authoritarian.

I would never dare to tell a designer how something should look; I talk about values and how our previous designs can be explained by those values

CDN: Bastian is obviously very engaged in the history of Mercedes-Benz if the meeting went on that long.

MB: He really is very engaged. I'm not a designer and would never dare to tell a designer how a solution should look. But I talk about values, about how our previous designs can be explained by those values, and are a translation of a certain solution from that time. The idea is that you look at one of our cars you can say it's ten years old, but it's a Mercedes; it's 50 years old, it's a Mercedes; it's 140 years old, it's Mercedes.

CDN: Brand power is certainly important, and there will be common threads between generations if you stick to those core values I suppose.

MB: When you see concepts like the C111, it's not a coincidence that the Vision One Eleven and the four-door AMG GT all have the same colour and parts of the grille are similar. On our stand you have the SL race sport prototype there: just look at the grille, at the design elements, and you will find those traits in contemporary models too.

CDN: I wonder more generally, why do you think we love classic cars? What do classic cars do to the brain – and why do we willingly spend so much time and money into keeping them alive?

MB: The short but wrong answer would be ‘nostalgia’. But it's not about nostalgia. When you look at something you should recognise instinctively that there was a solution being sought after and the best possible answer was found. That is still relevant today. It gives you confidence and a feeling that a brand is not just a one hit wonder. 

At the core it is about authenticity and that is central to heritage. History is about looking back, heritage is about looking back and filtering out what's relevant, putting it into a navigation system for the future and telling you what's wrong, what's right, what's the right direction. People understand this pretty well because we do this in many aspects of life.

CDN: This is quite a philosophical answer.

MB: Well, ‘philosophical’ sounds like all this is theoretical, but it really builds a solid foundation for our brand. We create a guideline, a dogma for which we all act upon not just from our heritage but with our current lineup too. Those values that can be seen across our heritage define us as a company.

CDN: But what is the pull from a classic car specifically? They are often viewed as design objects in a different way to modern cars.

MB: Yeah, they are different, but there are still elements from classics that will be translated into a new design language. If you look at the W194 [gestures to the car on the stand], the first gullwing race car, it has this shark mouth which inspires the grille for our new AMG sports cars. The body is almost like a baroque sculpture, and you can see that theme again on the Pagoda that followed, which has this very sleek design done by Paul Bracq. And then again with Bruno Sacco’s clean but timeless E-Class AMG [also on the stand].

CDN: Am I getting a bit of an insight into your day-to-day work, analysing the history books, identifying the core values and seeing how you can bring them forward?

MB: Absolutely. We really boil it down to the core values – like pioneering spirit, safety, quality, comfort, racing competition – stuff like that. And like I said, I don't dare to advise a designer how to do their job. But I try to explain how previous generations have done that.

In the past, the styling department was always very much linked to R&D and the technical guys because a car is a machine first. From there, it’s something which has to move quickly and safely, deal with aerodynamics, provide comfort, additional features and so on. Packaging has been and still is a devilish challenge for a designer because the sculpture you have in mind becomes a very complex aggregation of different considerations. And all that must ultimately speak to human nature.

“Powerful, successful and high-performing” can come in different shapes and forms

CDN: How often do you chat with the design team about all of this?

MB: They are, as we speak, visiting our collection and are having a workshop there right now. They also often come to the museum on Mondays while it is closed to the public. Sometimes they just check out the different grilles from over the years.

It certainly helps that I'm not just the museum guy. I used to be the head of our product strategy, responsible for all new cars until design freeze. So I know them [the designers] and understand that they have a very difficult but a very rewarding job. I try to frame our discussions to provide useful context and give encouragement.

CDN: I suspect those conversations will indeed be very useful. We were talking about the elegance of the Gullwing and then the '80s AMG outside. Why did you choose to have those cars on show at Goodwood alongside the new CLA 45 AMG?

MB: Well, both have a strong connection to AMG. The original racing Gullwing is the parent of the AMG sports car phase, and the SEC is another great example: it is made from a regular coupe version but became a race machine rocket. It is the design that is important to us: with an AMG car it must be clear that it is a Mercedes and show our racing heritage. The first Mercedes was a race car, with a wider stance, a lower centre of gravity, better brakes and less weight.

CDN: So both of those classics reflect your racing pedigree, just executed in two very different ways.

MB: You can see in both cars that “powerful, successful and high-performing” does not necessarily mean you have one set design, it can come in different shapes and forms. They are all elegant cars too, and today we still believe that a performance car has to be stylish. Sebastian [Baudy] did this in a very nice way when he was AMG’s chief designer. Now at Mercedes, he covers the whole span of the brand and will have to consider the more representative ‘daily use’ execution of elegance as well.