Private company

Mercedes

Mercedes (German: [mɛʁˈtseːdəs, -dɛs]) was a brand originally created by the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) and used for first time in the 35 hp model released by the company in 1901.1

Last updated Oct 18, 2026.

Overview

1902Founded1
  • Industryautomotive industry1

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Mercedes (German: [mɛʁˈtseːdəs, -dɛs]) was a brand originally created by the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) and used for first time in the 35 hp model released by the company in 1901. DMG began to develop in 1900, after the death of its co-founder, Gottlieb Daimler. Although the name was not lodged as a trade name until 23 June 1902 and not registered legally until 26 September, the brand name eventually would be applied to an automobile model built by Wilhelm Maybach to specifications by Emil Jellinek. This vehicle was delivered to him on 22 December 1900.2

How it started

History of the Mercedes series

Mercedes was a brand in the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) which began to develop in 1901, after the death of its co-founder, Gottlieb Daimler.

On 30 March 1900, a few weeks after the death of Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Bauer decided spontaneously to enter the Nice-La Turbie hill climb, but crashed fatally after hitting a rock on the first turn while avoiding spectators. This caused DMG to abandon racing.

Nonetheless, Emil Jellinek came to an agreement with DMG on 2 April 1900 by promising the large sum of 550,000 Goldmark if Wilhelm Maybach would design a revolutionary sports car for him, later to be called the Mercedes 35 hp, of which 36 units had to be delivered before 15 October. The contract also included an order for 36 standard DMG 8 hp cars. Jellinek soon became a member of the DMG Board of Management and obtained the exclusive dealership for the model—that would become the new Mercedes 35 hp—for France, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, and United States of America. However, the first one was not delivered to Jellinek until 22 December.

Jellinek laid down strict specifications for the new model stating "I don't want a car for today or tomorrow, it will be the car of the day after tomorrow". He itemized many new parameters to overcome the problems found in many of the ill-designed "horseless carriages" of the time which made automobiles unsuitable for high speeds and at risk of overturning:

Electric ignition using the new Bosch system (in lieu of a gas heated glow tube)

From Wikipedia’s article on Mercedes, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Timeline

  1. 1926Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1902Founded Founded1
  3. 1901Acquired Acquired by Daimler Motors Corporation1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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