Discovering the world by car

In the mid-19th century a stagecoach owned by the Rothschild banking house travelled from Frankfurt to Paris via Saarbrücken. The four-horse carriage took 4 ½ days to complete the journey, which was fairly fast for those days. But only a distinguished circle of wealthy individuals could actually take advantage of this method of transportation.

A good 100 years later, the trip from Saarbrücken to Paris by car took a mere four hours.

In the final third of the 19th century, 80 to 90 per cent of the population on the Saar never left the town or village where they lived, except for occasional one-day outings or military service.

The car made it possible to experience mobility in a new way.

Travelling by car stood for an experience of freedom previously unknown. Now, one was master over where and when one travelled and had the freedom to decide who one wished to travel with. That was the big difference between travel by car and travel by rail: freedom from the fear of missing the train and freedom from having to worry about disagreeable fellow passengers in one's compartment.

This new experience made the car a kind of memento, depicted in millions of photo albums.