History
Karl Benz was born in Ladenburg, Germany in 1844. He was a German engine designer and car engineer who is generally regarded as the inventor of the first gas powered automobile. Previously, gasoline had only been used as a cleaning product. Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler patented their internal combustion engine in 1879 and Benz gained a patent for his automobile, the Benz Patent Motorwagen in 1886. He also patented the speed regulation system, ignition system using spark plugs and battery, the spark plug, the carburettor, clutch, gearshift and water radiator. His wife Bertha became the first person to drive an automobile over long distances in 1888 when she drove her sons 66 miles to visit her mother, which caused a great deal of publicity. The trip proved to her husband that their motorcar could be useful to the general public and therefore their company had a future. The 3 pointed star logo represents Gottlieb Daimler’ motto, ‘engines for land, air and water’.
Major Events
Karl Benz joined August Ritter in building an iron foundry in Mannheim. They named the foundry Factory for Machines for Sheet-metal Working in 1871. Their first year was a disaster with Ritter proving to be very unreliable. Benz’s fiancé purchased Ritter’s share of the company and used it as a dowry for their marriage. Banks in Mannheim forced the couple to improvise an association with another company in order to gain additional financial support. The company became known as Mannheim in 1882. Benz was made director and controlled a mere 5% of his own company. He withdrew from the corporation and a year later he and two others founded a company called Benz & Company Rheinische Gasmotoren Fabrik that produced industrial machines. The success of this company enabled Benz to invent and patent the Benz Patent Motorwagen in 1885. He began selling his vehicle in 1888, making it the first commercially available motorcar in the automobile industry. Benz became the largest automobile company in the world when it produced 572 cars in 1899.
Mercedes was a brand of the Daimler Motors Corporation, founded by Gottlieb Daimler. He and Karl Benz created the company Daimler-Benz in 1926. They adopted the name Mercedes-Benz as their automobile trademark. The name ‘Mercedes’ means ‘gifts’ or ‘favours’ in Spanish and was in honour of Emil Jellinek’s 10-year-old daughter. Jellinek was a wealthy European entrepreneur who sat on the board of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG). The company’s first contract was to build race cars for Wilhelm Maybach who would supply 36 of them to Jellinek for 550,000 gold marks. The prototype was finished in 1900 and gave Jellinek a string of racing successes where the cars reached a top speed of 60 km/h.
Daimler-Benz is best known for its Mercedes-Benz automobile brand but during World War 2 it also produced a series of engines used in planes, tanks and submarines. The company also designed and produced parts of the Mauser rifle. Using slave labor during the war left a black mark on the company, however BMW, Porsche, and Audi also used slave labours during this time as well.
Daimler-Benz AG was purchased by Chrysler Corporation in 1998, forming the company DaimlerChryslerAG. The Chrysler Group was renamed Chrysler LLC when it was sold to Cerberus Capital Management in 2007. It is now known as Daimler AG.
Going Forward
Mercedes has plenty of tricks up their sleeve and are making great strides in the electric vehicle arena with the all new B Class Electric Drive recently being showcased on their American page, with rollouts on the international scene in 2015. This zero emissions car is equipped with 174 horses in its compact size and offers drivers connected vehicle technology for remote monitoring, charging, and plenty of other smart features.
Also on deck in the lineup are a C-Class Sedan in 2015, S65 AMG, and the GLA45 AMG all coming in 2015, making Mercedes-Benz a heavy hitter on the global scene as the next couple years unfold.
