In early May I was one of about a dozen journalists who visited Germany as guests of Festool. Our first stop was company headquarters in Wendlingen, a suburban town southeast of Stuttgart. As an introduction to the company's history, our hosts took us to a room in the back of a warehouse to see their museum of tools. I was psyched to be there, especially when I found out the museum is not open to the public.

The museum was filled with hand-held power tools and stationary machines going all the way back to 1925. A Festool employee described some of the more significant tools in the collection, though I admit to having missed some of what he said because I was busy checking out the very cool tools around me. You can see some of what I saw at the museum by clicking the photo on the left (be sure to see the captions).

Keep your eyes open in the coming weeks for additional stories about my trip to Germany, including visits to a tool distributor and Festool's testing labs and factories.