The history of Mercedes-Benz or for short Mercedes (and sometimes even "Benz" or "Merc") is quite interesting. Mercedes is a German company founded in 1871. In the beginning, there were three people - Gottlieb Daimler together with Wilhelm Maybach and Karl Benz. Karl Benz and the other two were able to invent the automobile with internal combustion independently from each other. It is very interesting however that they were only sixty miles apart from each other in that time. Karl Benz was working in Mannheim. He had a shop there, which was the place where he invented the first real automobile driven by internal combustion. The year was 1885 and in the next year, Karl Benz was granted a patent for his new creation. The automobile was called "Benz Patent Motorwagen," it had three wheels, and the design reminds of a carriage hauled by horses perhaps because the main design model was taken from a carriage. The first engine Karl Benz patented in 1879 and it was designed by him.

Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach were granted a patent a year before Karl Benz's internal combustion automobile model. The year was 1885 and the exact date - August 29. The engine they made is believed to be the first prototype of the today's gas engine and they called it "grandfather clock engine."

In the next year, Gottlieb Daimler purchased a stagecoach in which he was planning to put the internal combustion engine. Many people made these purchases in that time but Gottlieb Daimler is perhaps the first one with the engine idea in mind. Daimler and Maybach worked together to adopt this stagecoach to fit the needs of the engine. The official words which Mercedes used for this model is "a carriage without horses." It is without horses but with conventional drawbar steering and internal combustion engine.

Soon after that in 1889 they built a complete model from scratch which was the first automobile powered by four-stoke engine. It was again with four wheels and after the founding of DMG in 1890; they were able to sell the first model of their automobile two years later in 1892. On the other hand, Karl Benz was able to sell his first model in 1888 - a year before Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach was able to build their model. Karl Benz did that after some refining of his model Motorwagen and maybe this gave him this advantage over the years because he did not started from scratch like Daimler and Maybach did.

In 1899, automobiles from Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft made in a city near Stuttgart took a part in a race driven by Emil Jellinek. Jellinek was a diplomat and a businessman and he was very enthusiastic about the whole idea around automobiles. In 1896, he went to see the designers Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach and soon after that, he bought from them his first automobile car - the Phoenix. An interesting story about that car is that Emil Jellinek painted the name of his daughter Mercedes Adriana Manuela Ramona Jellinek on the car for good luck. Years after that a whole series of cars got that name.


Jellinek wanted faster cars and that the 1900 DMG was the first to bear his daughter's name. It looks like Jellinek was obsessed by the idea of his daughter's name because he offered and made a contract for 550 000 marks for the purchase of 36 models of the new car with 35 hp engine only to see his daughter name on this car. The new engine was named Daimler-Mercedes engine containing like this only the name of the developer and Mercedes. Very soon after that, he made a deal for another 36 models but of another series - with 8 hp engines. After that on a higher price, he was able to sell these models on the market in USA, Belgium, France and Austria-Hungary and that quickly made him be one of the biggest sellers of cars for that time. Of course, the name of his daughter Mercedes kept on showing on new models of automobiles like "Mercedes 35 hp." Jellinek's obsession by the name Mercedes grow up and he even change his own name to Jellinek-Mercedes. For eight years, Jellinek took place in the meetings of the board of directors of Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft from 1901 to 1909 but he retired from any activities linked to automobiles because of his diplomatic appointments.

In 1924, the two big companies DMG and Benz & Cie. finally began cooperating but due to World War I and the problems with the German economy in that time they were able to merge two years after that in 1926 and they used the name Daimler-Benz AG. Of course, the name Mercedes was not lost. They began production of tracks and automobiles and they used the name Mercedes-Benz for them. From the part of Daimler they got the name Mercedes and Benz was from the part of the ex company Benz & Cie. A clause of the merging agreement compelled the two companies to stay together until 2000. They focused on creating land models of vehicles but they also made engines for boats and planes for both civil and military organizations. They were able to make even Zeppelins powered by their engines and soon after that in 1929, Karl Benz died.

The company's most efforts were on creating limousine models and their glory is known today for that. Still they made some sport models like the early model of SSK designed by Ferdinand Porsche. Another product is the amazing Mercedes-Benz 300SL. With its gull-wing doors, it was an interesting view. Of course, Mercedes-Benz made less expensive cars for the general public too. In Stuttgart, they were able to create and test the Volkswagen models in cooperation with Porsche. Before that car, a model called A-Class came in production. It is a small family car and maybe because of this the popular name of that car is Baby Benz. The first generation of Baby Benz was created in 1997 and years after that after redesign it appeared again in 2004.

Mercedes History

Karl Benz & Gottlieb Daimler by Tim Patterson The First Practical Petrol Driven Car It is widely accepted today that Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler were the first to produce a "horseless carriage". Karl Benz was born in 1844, a descendant of blacksmiths and son of a German engine driver. Gottlieb Daimler, 10 years younger than Benz, became "chief engineer" in a locomotives works factory three years after Benz had left.?This was the closest the two ever came to meeting. Daimler's very first car was a wooden motorcycle that could only reach 12km/h, while the first Benz car of 1886 could only reach 15 km/h (this some six years after he had first run his new engine, on new year's eve, 1879). And it is this car that is widely considered to be the first ever practical, petrol driven motor car, which coincidentally incorporated Benz's own invention, the carburettor. His wife and children watched as he tried it out for the first time on a cinder track next to his workshop. The car ran right into the wall and ended up somewhat bent and broken. Benz admitted it was tricky to steer! "I ventured a ride on the road," he said "only after I had somehow managed to steer properly." When he did succeed in driving his machine non-stop round the streets of the town, it was the most exciting day of his life. But unfortunately, Benz was a man who refused to move with the times. He would not see that his cars were no more than stepping stones towards better and improved vehicles. His early cars sold well, but he could not bring himself to alter his basic design. Buyers turned to other makes, forcing Benz to curtail production. In 1900 he built over 600; in 1903, only 170. His car even became a joke among designers and car owners. No one doubts that Karl Benz was a gifted engineer, but his stubborn and obstinate nature nearly ruined him. Emil Jellinek & daughter Mercedes The First Mercedes The first Mercedes was the result of a discussion by three men, an Austrian diplomat, Emile Jellinek, who was more interested in cars than diplomacy; a designer, Wilhelm Maybach; and Paul Daimler, son of the famous Gottlieb Daimler. Jellinek was enthusiastic about the dawn of motoring age and believed that the motor car was of major importance for the future. In 1897 he had already made a special journey to Cannstatt where he visited the Daimler factory and brought back a car to the French Riviera, causing quite a stir. At the meeting with Maybach and Paul Daimler, Jellinek outlined what he had in mind and agreed that, if Maybach would design a car along those lines, he would be prepared to take delivery of the companies entire production. Maybach set to work on the new design and, when the first car appeared at Nice in 1901, it amazed everybody with its fine performance. Overnight it made every other car seem five years out of date. The ideas of these three men revolutionised motor car design the world over. Jellinek decided to call the new car "Mercedes", a Spanish Christian name meaning "grace", and a name he obviously quite liked, as he had chosen for his daughter. Jellinek was also acutely aware that the French were prejudiced against any car with a German name, and so Mercedes was a far better fit. Since Jellinek was a big figure in society there and enjoyed good relation's with the international financial world, it was not long before prospective buyers were taking an interest in the Daimler cars. Mercedes At The Race Track Mercedes have raced since the 1894 Paris- Rouen race and received their first record in motor racing in 1901 at Nice in France with a car that had a 35 horsepower motor that got to a speed of 79.7 km/h. But it was between the wars that Mercedes came to the fore, with the impressive SSKL sports car.?In 1937, this car had improved to have a top speed over 330 km/h (in 1939 this increased to 400 km/h!!) and it is still considered as one of the most successful racing cars ever made. For the Tripoli Grand Prix, the organisers placed a 1.5 litre limit on the motor size to help the Italian sports cars, but Mercedes was able to produce a motor in time and come first and second!! Their fastest lap was 211.6 km/h and these cars still exist at the Mercedes Benz museum. In 1954 and 1955 the famous racing car driver Juan Manuel Fangio won most of the world grand prix's driving a 2.5litre 300SL Mercedes but in 1955 a driver crashed driving a 300SL and killed 90 people.?Mercedes then pulled out of motor car racing and have only recently re-entered Formula One and have been very successful winning the manufacturers championship last year. The Mercedes Symbol The Mercedes trademark was registered in 1902 - after Karl Daimler had died in 1900 at the age of 66.  His two sons then managed the company - and they remembered that their father had only once sent a postcard to their mother which had a star marked on the house where he was living at the time, a place called Deutz. He made the comment on the card that "eventually this star would rise out and shine over his work".  In June 1909, the then chairman applied for a trademark of both a three pointed star and four pointed star.  Both trademarks were granted, but only one was ever used.  This trademark was soon placed on the from of the car as an radiator emblem.