How Mercedes Benz Company was Named
The Mercedes-Benz automobile line developed its name from the merger of two competing manufacturers which had different development histories, both as factories and as marketing companies.
The name Benz & Cie. dates from October 1883, and the company was specifically formed by Karl Friedrich Benz, a mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Karlsruhe, to produce automobiles. The Benz Patent Motorwagen was first made in 1886. Through racing, public relations and marketing, Benz of Mannheim became the largest auto manufacturer in the world, growing from 50 employees in 1889 to 430 in 1899.
Later in 1883, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach produced a stagecoach with a gasoline engine, and subsequently the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) company was formed in 1890. Daimler and Maybach had originally manufactured stationary engines. DMG grew from a horseless carriage assembler into an automobile manufacturer. In 1900 Maybach designed a 35 horsepower engine to the specifications of Emil Jellinek, an Austrian consular official and very successful insurance inspector, who ordered several vehicles, became a main agent and distributor and resold them to the aristocrats who he interacted with as a diplomat.
Jellinek's daughter, Adrienne Manuela Ramona, was born in 1889. The family, however, called her "Mercedes," Spanish for "gifts" or "favors." In 1900, Jellinek contracted with DMG to produce 36 very advanced racing cars to be named after his daughter. It became the "Daimler-Mercedes" and set many racing records during the next few years. Jellenik raced the cars, himself, and had "Mercedes" painted on the sides.
Gottlieb Daimler died in 1900. There is no record that he or Benz ever knew each other. In 1902, DMG registered the "Mercedes" name as its trademark for the entire automobile line. For several negative reasons, Jellinek and DMG parted ways in 1908. But the name remained.
Benz & Cie. countered the Mercedes with its own Parsifal in 1903, which was also successful. Then in 1909, the Mannheim factory came out with the Blitzen Benz which set land speed records in various countries all over the world.
After World War I, Germany was an economic disaster and became increasingly less stable until the crisis worsened into the crash and hyperinflation of 1923. As early as 1919, Benz & Cie. approached DMG about joint operations, but they could not agree. By 1923, the need to cooperate was financially imperative, so in 1924 the companies formed a syndicate to standardize many of their mutual operations. Later, in 1926 the companies merged to become Daimler-Benz and named all of the automobiles "Mercedes-Benz" with each model name following that initial designation.
The new company logo blended both company symbols: the DMG three-pointed star in a circle, laurel wreaths on each side as in the Benz mark, Mercedes at the top and Benz at the bottom, thus"Mercedes-Benz."since 1926.
