16 Interesting Facts About Mercedes-Benz: Brand Name Could Have Been Adrienne!

Mercedes brand vehicles are synonymous with the highest level of luxury, comfort, and reliability. It is one of the most important reasons why people praise German engineering almost everywhere in the world.

In the following, you will get an insight of interesting facts about Mercedes-Benz:

  • Co-founders’ Independent Success Stories.
  • The Tragic Austrian Girl Who Gave Her Name To The Car.
  • Ad Wars Between Mercedes And BMW.
  • The Giant Mercedes Silver Star Bridge.
  • Mercedes-themed Tombstones.
  • The First Gas Station In The World.
  • And Many More Interesting Facts About The Cult Brand.

1. The Benz Patent-Motorwagen (Mercedes) Is The First Car Of The World. (1885)

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Karl Benz developed an oil motor tricycle carriage in 1885 and took out a patent at the imperial patent office in Berlin in 1886. The three-wheeled two-seater carriage on high wheels with spokes is by far the first petrol-powered car in the world.

This car, named Patent-Motorwagen, had at least four features common to nearly every vehicle on the roads today: a water-cooled engine, an electric ignition, a differential gear, and a mechanically-operated inlet valve.

Please click on the picture roll to discover more about the first automobile ever built and its creator, who was also the co-founder of Mercedes.




2. Bertha Benz Became The First Person To Travel Long Distance In A Car That Went Beyond A Test Drive.

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Bertha Ringer Benz was much more than just the wife of the famous engineer Carl Benz. Not only did she enable her husband to continue his business financially by using her dowry when his business was not doing so well, but she was also the first human to dare to take a twelve-hour road trip in a modern car.

In 1888, three years after the invention of the car, she (39) and her two sons, Eugen and Richard, drove a 106 km / 65-mile round trip from Mannheim to Pforzheim to visit her mom’s house. Five days later, the trio traveled back from a different route.

There were some incredible firsts on Bertha’s journey: (please click on the picture roll)

Above photo shows a staged reenactment of Bertha Benz’s historic drive with her two sons.

3. Replicas Of The World’s First Automobile Are Being Sold By Auctions With High Prices.

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More than a century after Karl Benz patented his invention, Mercedes-Benz Classic built several replicas of the Patent Motor Car as a tribute to this milestone in automotive history.

The replicas were made as display pieces for museums and showrooms in various parts of the world. A couple of them were sold to the public at auctions.

Click on the picture above for the auction details and prices.

PS: If you want to have one, there is still a chance to buy one:

4. Benz Velo (Mercedes) Is The World’s First Volume-Produced Automobile. (1894-1901)

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Benz Velo was a light, fast, robust, and comparatively cost-effective car. When Benz & Cie. added this model to its lineup of available automobiles, sales volumes increased significantly, and it became the first mass-manufactured car in history.

Until 1901, the Stuttgart-based company produced 1200 units in different variants. It weighed 280 kg (617 lbs) – 380 kilograms less than the previous model Victoria. It cost 2000 German marks. In the early 1900s, the average monthly wage of a worker was around 60 marks. The price of Benz Velo was equivalent to the sum of 2.75 years’ salary.

5. Daimler Cannstatt (Mercedes) Is The World’s First Four-Wheeled Motor Vehicle Built By Gottlieb Daimler. (1886)

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While Carl Benz received a patent for the first modern car, another German engineer Gottlieb Daimler, a pioneer of internal combustion engines, was also working on automobile development nearly 95 kilometers (59 miles) from Mannheim. The two inventors did not know each other.

On March 8, 1886, months after Benz’s tricycle invention, Gottlieb Daimler and his chief engine designer and business partner Wilhelm Maybach built the first four-wheeled vehicle called Daimler Cannstatt

It was a gift for his wife Emma’s upcoming birthday. For more details, please click on the picture roll.

6. Gottlieb Daimler, Co-Founder Of Mercedes Benz, Also Developed The First Motorcycle But Inadvertently.

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A year before his first four-wheeled motor car, Gottlieb Daimler patented a two-wheeled vehicle with an internal combustion petroleum engine on August 11, 1886. The 0.5 hp power vehicle, developed with Wilhelm Maybach and known as Daimler Reitwagen / Riding Car, is the first motorcycle in the world.

On November 10, Gottlieb Daimler’s younger son Adolf, 14 years old at the time, made the first motorcycle round trip from Cannstatt to Untertürkheim, covering about six kilometers with a maximum speed of 12 km/h.

7. Daimler-Benz Was Founded In 1926 With The Help Of Deutsche Bank

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In the early 1920s, many car manufacturers struggled with economic difficulties in Germany and waged a tough fight for survival.

Although there was no lack of innovation, Benz & Cie in Mannheim and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in Stuttgart had to react to the dwindling economic power in Germany. On the recommendation of Deutsche Bank, a merger took place in the summer of 1926, and Daimler-Benz AG was formed.

The new single entity also resulted in the birth of the Mercedes-Benz brand.

8. Mercedes Is Named After An Austrian Girl – Mercédès Jellinek.

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Emil Jellinek was an Austrian businessman and diplomat living in Nice, France. He was selling Daimler vehicles to the upper class in Côte d’Azur. As a racing enthusiast, Jellinek participated in races to make his automobiles more popular. In 1899, he won the Nice-Magagnone-Nice touring race (approximately 80 km) with a 16 hp Daimler racing car. Jellinek had registered the vehicle for the competition under the pseudonym: Monsieur Mercedes.

Mercedes was the pet name of his eleven-year-old daughter Adrienne Manuela Ramona Jellinek. Emil believed she brought luck to him and affectionately called her Mercedes.

Emil Jellinek was so happy about the quality and performance of the Daimler models that he ordered 36 vehicles the following year, a third of the total annual production of DMG.

At the time, DMG had sold the license of its engines to foreign companies, including the use of the brand name Daimler. They had been receiving 12% of the sale price. After Jellinek’s Mercedes won numerous races and became famous worldwide, Daimler registered the Mercedes name in 1902 and made it a protected brand.

After the merger of Daimler and Benz in June 1926, the brand name was changed to Mercedes-Benz. To this day, Mercedes-Benz, more commonly Mercedes, is the only automobile brand to bear a female first name.

9. Creation And Evolution of the Mercedes Logo Star!

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In 1909 the Supervisory Board of DMG decided to use a logo for their Mercedes-branded vehicles. While they searched for an eye-catching and powerful symbol, Paul and Adolf Daimler, the sons of Gottlieb Daimler, who died in 1900, came up with a three-pointed star.

The idea came from a drawing on a postcard. In 1872 Gottlieb Daimler started working as a technical director at Deutz, the largest engine manufacturer in the world at the time. He was only 38 years old. Gottlieb sent his wife a postcard depicting a view of Cologne’s neighboring town of Deutz with a note: A star will rise from here, and I hope it will bring blessings to our family. Furthermore, he marked his house on the postcard with a multi-pointed star.

Paul and Adolf switched the design to a three-pointed-one representing land, air, and water. With these three elements, they intended to symbolize Daimler’s vision to develop engines for land vehicles, aircraft, and ships.

Within a short time, both car manufacturers would start using their protected identities on their products and in communication.

10. The Greek Taxi Driver Drove 4.6 Million Kilometers With His Mercedes 240 D, The Highest Milage Car.

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Gregorios Sachinides from Thessaloniki bought a Mercedes 200 D with 210,000 kilometers on the odometer in 1981 from Germany for 6000 marks. Twenty-three years later, in 2004, the Greek cabman had set a record, according to Guinness, for the highest mileage ever recorded. His vehicle delivered 4.6 million kilometers, the longest known distance of a car at the time. It is equivalent to six times going to the moon and back or 115 times circumnavigating the world.

The record was broken later in 2014 by a 1966 Volvo P1800 with 5 million kilometers.

11. Janis Joplin, The First Queen Of Rock & Roll And Prominent Music And Protest Figure Of The 1960s, Has A Mercedes-Benz Song.

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Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz? Music enthusiasts know these lines. It is a capella song recorded by Janis Joplin in October 1970. Three days later, she died of a heroin overdose at just 27 in Los Angeles, California.

The story of this song began a few months before, in the summer of 1970: (Please click on the picture roll above)

12. Mercedes-Benz Created Legendary G-Wagon By The Suggestion Of The Shah of Iran.

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Shah Reza Pahlevi’s Iran held 18.5 percent of Daimler-Benz shares in the early 70s and asked the German car maker to build an off-road car for Persian border patrols.

The story began with the letter from Reza Pahlevi to Mercedes-Benz:

13. Mercedes Acquired Chrysler To Form Daimler-Chrysler In 1998, And Then Divested From It In 2007, Due To A Corporate Culture Clash With A Cost Of Almost 40 Billion Euros.

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In 1998 Daimler-Benz AG joined forces with the US automotive group Chrysler to form a joint company DaimlerChrysler AG by exchanging shares. It had been the largest merger in industrial history. After a few years, however, the wedding in heaven (according to the Daimler-Benz CEO Jürgen Schrempp about the acquisition) ended up as a gigantic flop.

At the time of the merger, the joint company was worth almost 72 billion euros. Together they gained 118 billion euros in sales with a total of 442000 employees worldwide. The media was celebrating the big numbers, and nobody heard the skeptical voices: “Did the companies fit together? Did this merger make economic sense?

These are the highlights of the disastrous transatlantic car marriage:

14. W124 Mercedes Benz 500E Is Arguably The Only Perfect Sedan Ever Built – By Porsche.

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Connoisseurs believe W124 Mercedes 500E is the best sedan of the world all time; due to its iconic Le-Mans-winning V-8 engine and revolutionary design.

It is from the era when the engineers were still in charge of developing cars – not the marketing departments. Mercedes W124 is considered the last real Benz.

You can still see the W124 everywhere, even though rivals of that time, such as the Opel Senator B or Ford Scorpio, had long since disappeared from the streetscape.

Designed by Italian Bruno Sacco and produced by rival Porsche, the Mercedes W124 has a unique story:

15. Advertising Wars Between BMW And Mercedes Ads.

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The marketing duels between BMW and Daimler are famous for their level and wit. The two arch-rivals do not hesitate to make ironic but respectful social media posts by tagging each other. Their funny guerrilla advertising campaigns are always a hit on the Internet. Here are some of the best ones:

16. Lastly, 8 Fast Facts About Mercedes-Benz.

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From Mercedes-themed tombstones to a bridge designed in the shape of a Mercedes silver star, here are eight interesting facts about the German auto giant to surprise and delight: