Besides being home to the world's largest railway museum, Mulhouse, France (population 110,000) also claims bragging rights to the world's largest automobile museum--Cite de l'Automobile. Located near the edge of town, the origins of the collection is a fascinating story.
I'll give you a brief background. Brothers Hans and Fritz Schlumpf were Swiss citizens born in Italy but when their mother was widowed she moved the family to Mulhouse, France. In 1935 the brothers founded a company which produced spun woolen products. After World War II their business took off, multiple factories opened and they became very wealthy. In the 1950's they started collecting cars--with Bugatti cars being the main focus (it might have something to do with the Bugatti factory being a mere 50 miles up the road). The brother's car collecting became obsessive and soon a wing of this 200,000 square foot factory was chosen to restore and house the collection. The 40 carpenters, mechanics and others working on the cars had to sign confidentiality agreements to keep secret their work and scale of the collection. By 1976 textile manufacturing was moving to Asia and the brothers started selling factories. In 1977 laid-off workers staged a sit-in strike at Schlumpf's offices and broke into the Mulhouse "factory" to find this incredible collection of more than 600 cars. The brothers fled to Switzerland. The Schlumpf brother's debt rose and to save the collection from destruction, break-up or being exported, the contents were classified in 1978 as a French Historic Monument. Now, the museum is owned by the French government and is listed as a National Heritage site. The photo pictured above and below shows the museum entrance.
fascinating.
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