Mercedes-Benz is named after a racing enthusiast's daughter, not a founder
Neither Gottlieb Daimler nor Carl Benz was called Mercedes. The name came from the daughter of Emil Jellinek, a director of Daimler's firm who ordered racing cars built to his own specifications around 1900 and insisted their engine carry her name. His racer made it famous, and the brand stuck through a century of mergers.
Benz and Cie., founded by Carl Benz in 1883, is regarded as the oldest car company anywhere. Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft followed in 1890, set up by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. The two signed a mutual-interest pact on 1 May 1924 and merged fully on 28 June 1926 as Daimler-Benz, putting the Mercedes-Benz badge on every car. The Daimler name itself was already licensed to other carmakers, and the new firm lacked consent to use it as a brand, so Mercedes stood in for the Daimler side. Karl Benz stayed on the board until he died in 1929.
During the Second World War the company built engines for German aircraft, tanks and submarines, and its production lines served the Nazi regime almost entirely. More than 60,000 concentration camp prisoners and other forced labourers worked for it, links the company later acknowledged.
In 1998 chief executive Jurgen Schrempp engineered what he called a merger of equals with Chrysler, the smallest of Detroit's big three. Worth 38 billion dollars, it was the largest cross-border deal ever made. Investors sued, arguing it was really a takeover; one class action settled for 300 million dollars in 2003. Few shared platforms emerged, though the Chrysler Crossfire borrowed an SLK chassis and a Mercedes V6. Schrempp resigned at the end of 2005 after the share price slid. In 2007 Cerberus Capital Management took Chrysler, and the German parent actually paid it 650 million dollars to absorb the unit and its liabilities.
Renamed Daimler, the group spun off its trucks as Daimler Truck in February 2022 and took the name Mercedes-Benz Group. Geely owner Li Shufu became its largest single shareholder in 2018 with a 9.69 percent stake.
Source: Mercedes-Benz Group
