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Mercedes Benz Car Company The Mercedes-Benz name goes all the way back to the 1880's, when two men from Southwest Germany invented the internal combustion engine powered vehicle. The interesting thing here was that although they both invented the same engine, and they both resided in the same area of Germany, neither man at this point had heard of the other, or of their work. Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900) and William Maybach (1846-1929) worked together while Karl Benz worked independently, just 60 miles away from each other. It was Karl Benz that earned the accolade for inventing the world's very first true automobile powered by and internal combustion engine in 1885. he was granted the patent for it on January 29, 1886 and he named it the ‘Benz Patent Motorwagon'. Benz had many inventions under his belt; among them was an integral design for the Motorwagon patent application, a high-speed, single-cylinder, four-stroke engine of his own design, which he patented in 1879. At around this same time, Daimler and Maybach were granted a patent on the 29th August, 1885 for what they named the ‘Grandfather Clock Engine'. This engine is generally recognised as being the prototype for the first modern gas engine. Daimler and Maybach bought a stagecoach in 1886 and adapted it to hold their engine, creating a four-wheeled carriage propelled by an engine. This was nothing new but what set Daimler and Maybach's invention apart form the others was that it carried an internal combustion engine. No other attempt anywhere in the world had managed to move boats, cars or carriages on this type of engine. This breakthrough paved the way for Daimler and Maybach to purposely build, from scratch, the first four-stroke engine powered automaobile with four wheels in 1889. This led onto creating the company Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, DMG in 1890, selling their first automobile in 1892. Meanwhile, Karl Benz continued to refine his Motorwagon and made several models, selling his first automobile in 1888. He went on the build his first four-wheeled model in 1891. He started the company Benz and Cie at this time and it became the world's first and largest automobile manufacturer by 1900. The name Mercedes first appeared on Emil Jellinek's racing cars. An automobile enthusiast and dealer, he painted his daughter's name on the side of the cars for good luck before racing them. It was his insistence for faster cars that spurred the development of the seminal 1902 DMG model bearing the name Mercedes. Jellinek went to DMG with some design specifications and a promise to purchase thirty-six of the new automobile if Maybach named the new 35hp engine it contained, the Daimler-Mercedes engine. He paid 550,000 Marks for the contract and within weeks he had requested another contract worth another thirty-six DMG models, this time with 8hp engines. Jellinek was granted exclusive rights to sell the DMG models in Austria-Hungary, France, Belgium and the USA. This new model would eventually come to be known as the Mercedes 35hp. This change of name was beneficial in preventing legal problems as well as making Jellinek a very happy man. After the death of Daimler, DMG sold the exclusive rights to the name Daimler and the technical concepts to companies abroad. As a result of this sale, all luxury automobiles branded Daimler were and still are built in England. It was the troubled German economy after the First World War that bought these two giants of automobile development together. Their co-operations began in 1924 and by 1926; the two had merged to become Daimler-Benz AG. Together they produced Mercedes-Benz automobiles and trucks. Whilst focusing on land vehicles, Daimler-Benz also built engines to power boats, airplanes (civil and military) and even Zeppelins. The next on the agenda for conquering was to be motor sports. Both independent companies had already thrown their weight around the motoring world; both had been very successful too. Now it was time to put the two motoring giants together in one team. During the 1930's Mercedes dominated the Grand Prix racing circuit in Europe. Their elite team won many Grand Prix titles, dominating the industry with their Silver Arrows; they even set speed records during this time. The racing came to a pause during the Second World War when Mercedes caused controversy by aiding the Nazi war machine. They allegedly used many, some say up to 30,000, forced employees and POWs. This was so that Mercedes-Benz could produce the quantity and quality of products that were expected of them. It is said that some of these workers eventually ended up striking the company and were sent to the concentration camps. Another link between Nazi Germany and Mercedes-Benz was the invention of the ‘Volkswagen', literally meaning the peoples car. Hitler himself had the notion that automobile driving shouldn't be confined to the rich and elite of society, there should be a car that all of Germany could afford. He sketched a design of a car resembling a ‘bug' and passed it onto the head of Daimler-Benz in 1938, naming it at that time the Kraft durch Freude, (KdFWagen meaning ‘strength through joy car'). By the 1950's, Mercedes-Benz had returned to the racing circuit, completing a 23 hour victory at the 24 hour Le Mans race in 1952. In 1955, tragedy struck the German racing team who had previously won on the very same circuit. Jaguar, Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz all entered in what was promising to be a genuine clash of Titans. Only 2 hours into the race, Pierre Levegh, speeding down the straight in front of the pits, clipped British driver Lance Maklins' Austin-Healy. The Mercedes was travelling at speeds of up to 150 mph and his car flipped up into the spectator stands killing 80 members of the crowd and injuring 77. Levegh was also killed instantly. The race continued against much criticism, although Mercedes-Benz pulled all their drivers out of the race as a mark of respect. They didn't return to sport racing until the 1980's, and it wasn't until a triumphant come-back in 1993 that they made their return to Formula One racing. Mercedes have always been synonymous with wealth and riches. Celebrities, politicians and world leaders all have or want to be seen in them. They have always been regarded as the car to own to show your wealth and status. Constantly on the cutting edge of design, Mercedes were the first to invent and introduce things like fuel injection and anti-locking brakes. Today, their reputation as the leaders of luxury cars remains untarnished and they continue to break the mould in car design. Mercedes Benz Car Insurance Models180 190200 220 230 240 250 260 280 300 310 320 350 380 400 420 450 500 560 600 A Class AMG Atego C Class CE Class |
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