Experience the World Cup truck up close

Walking up to the small viewing platform of Mercedes-Benz World Cup Trucks is enough to give anyone goosebumps: after all, these are the exact stairs that Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm, Mats Hummels and Jogi Löw ascended, golden World Cup trophy held high, on their triumphant procession to the Brandenburg Gate past hundreds of thousands of cheering fans thronging the fan mile.

At the Mercedes-Benz CharterWay stand, football fans have a chance to follow in the footsteps of the newly crowned world champions. Many of them seized the opportunity during the first few days of the world's largest trade fair for commercial vehicles to stroll across the famous green strip of Astroturf. It had been laid down in the viewing platform by the trailer specialist Krone in just four days. A particularly popular photo motif was the inscription the joyful players scrawled on the balustrade behind the driver's cab with a felt tip pen. The squiggled lettering reads “World Champions 2014”.

Some visitors had the good fortune to meet a man who was very close to the team on the day of their triumphal parade: Mercedes-Benz DriverTrainer Friedrich “Thuni” Thunsdorff. He had been assigned the honourable job of driving the partying players through the huge crowds lining the fan mile. “It took us two hours and ten minutes to drive the 4.6 kilometres, and without the help of all the stewards, we'd probably still be stuck somewhere in Berlin,” says the experienced truck driver. The World Cup truck can be viewed in the outdoor exhibition area in front of the Mercedes-Benz CharterWay pavilion until the close of the IAA.