Mercedes Benz

Mercedes Benz

The first automobile, the first omnibus, the first heavy-duty truck, the first diesel engine, the first vehicles fitted with ABS and ESP … we have enjoyed a tradition of writing motorsport history for the past 120 years. Allow us to take you on a 120-year journey through automobile history.

Brand Company

Mercedes has been the world's most innovative automotive brand for more than 100 years. When Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) delivered its first Mercedes on December 22, 1900, this was the start of a development which led to the formation of DaimlerChrysler AG towards the end of the 20th century.

Today Mercedes-Benz is regarded as the world's most successful automotive brand. Its level of technical perfection, quality standards, innovative strength and numerous automotive legends such as the 300 SL Gullwing are unrivalled. The Mercedes star became the most famous automotive symbol of all and is one of the world's best-known trademarks.

Makers of Motorcars

When Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz invented the high-speed engine and the automobile independently of each other in the 1880s, they laid the foundations for motorised private transport. With the help of financial backers and partners, both engineers carried out private development work at their own companies. Benz founded Benz & Co. in Mannheim in October 1883; the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) was founded in Cannstatt in November 1890.

Both companies wanted to come up with a memorable trademark to make their products both distinctive and familiar. Initially they opted for their own names – Benz and Daimler – to represent the origins and quality of their engines and vehicles. But while the Benz & Cie. trademark did not change (though the gearwheel used in 1903 was replaced by a laurel wreath encircling the Benz name), the products of DMG appeared under the new brand name Mercedes at the turn of the century.

Eponymous Engineers

Mercedes is a female Spanish name and means "mercy". Mercedes was also the name of the daughter born to Austrian businessman, Emil Jellinek, who lived in Baden near Vienna and in Nice, in 1889.

Jellinek, a progressive gentleman who was interested in sport, was an enthusiastic champion of technical progress and the automobile. He was convinced that the automobile would shape the future. As early as 1897 he travelled to Cannstatt and ordered his first Daimler car, a six-horsepower belt-driven vehicle with a two-cylinder engine.

After taking delivery in October 1897, the 24 km/h maximum speed of this car was soon too slow for Jellinek. He wanted a top speed of 40 km/h and ordered two Daimler Phoenix models with a front-mounted eight-horsepower engine. These two cars delivered in September 1898 were the world's first road vehicles equipped with a four-cylinder engine.

As a businessman, Emil Jellinek enjoyed good relations with international financial circles and the aristocracy: in 1898 he began to sell Daimler automobiles to the members of high society. In 1899 Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) already delivered ten vehicles to Jellinek and in 1900 this increased to no less than 29.

Jellinek urged DMG to produce increasingly powerful and fast vehicles and from 1899 he entered them for racing events – above all the Week of Nice. He usually entered these races under the pseudonym "Mercedes", the name of his ten year-old daughter. Although the name became increasingly well-known amongst automobile lovers, Jellinek initially used it only as a team or driver name, not as a brand name.

In early April 1900, DMG and Jellinek concluded an agreement concerning the sale and distribution of Daimler cars and engines. When the decision was taken to develop a new engine bearing the name "Daimler-Mercedes", Jellinek's pseudonym also became a product name. Two weeks later Jellinek ordered 36 vehicles for a total price of 550,000 marks – roughly three million euros according to today's value. This was a very large order by any standards. A few weeks later he ordered a further 36 vehicles, all with eight-horsepower engines.

The first Mercedes

A 35 hp racing car

On 22 December 1900, the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft delivered to Jellinek the first car equipped with a new engine – a 35 hp racing car. This first "Mercedes", developed by Wilhelm Maybach, Chief Design Engineer at DMG, caused a sensation at the beginning of the last century. With its low centre of gravity, a compressed-steel frame, the light and powerful engine and the honeycomb radiator,