Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
Encyclopedia
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) (Daimler Motors Corporation
) was a German engine and later automobile manufacturer, in operation from 1890 until 1926. Founded by Gottlieb Daimler
and Wilhelm Maybach
, it was based first in Cannstatt (today Bad Cannstatt, a city district of Stuttgart
). Daimler died in 1900, and their business moved in 1903 to Stuttgart-Untertürkheim after the original factory was destroyed by fire, and again to Berlin in 1922. Other factories were located in Marienfelde
(near Berlin) and Sindelfingen
(next to Stuttgart
).
The enterprise was begun to produce petrol engines but after the success of a small number of race cars built on contract by Wilhelm Maybach for Emil Jellinek
, it began to produce the Mercedes
model of 1902. After this automobile production expanded to become DMGs main product, and it built several models.
Because of the post World War One German economic crisis, DMG merged in 1926 with Benz & Cie., becoming Daimler-Benz
and adopting Mercedes-Benz
as its automobile trademark. A further merger occurred in 1998 with Chrysler
to become DaimlerChrysler. The name was finally changed to just Daimler AG in 2007 when Chrysler was sold.
. In 1890 they founded their own engine business, Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG). Its purpose was the construction of small, high speed engines they had developed based on the same stationary engine
technology.
DMG thus grew out of an extension of the independent businesses of Daimler and Maybach, who would revolutionize the world with their inventions for the automobile of a four-stroke petrol engine
, carburetor
, and so on. They would manufacture small internal combustion engines suitable for use on land, sea, and in the air (the basis for a symbol Daimler devised of a three pointed star, with each point indicating a different way).
On July 5, 1887, Daimler purchased a property in Seelberg Hill (Cannstatt) previously owned by Zeitler & Missel who had used it as a precious metal foundry. The site covered 2,903 square meters, cost 30,200 Goldmark
, and from it they produced engines for their successful Neckar
motorboat. They also sold licences for others to make their engine products and Seelberg became a centre of the rapidly growing automobile industry.
Daimler ran into financial problems because sales were not high enough and the licences didn't yield significant profit. An agreement was reached with the financiers Max Von Duttenhofer and William Lorenz
, both of whom were also munitions manufacturers, along with the influential banker Kilian von Steiner
, who owned an Investment Bank, to convert the private business to a public corporation in 1890. (This agreement is regarded by some historians as a "devil's pact"http://zeus.zeit.de/text/2004/15/M-Daimler, as the inventors never got along with the new status.)
Not really believing in automobile production the financiers expanded the stationary engine business, as they were selling well, and even considered a merger with Otto's Deutz-AG. (During 1882, Gottflieb Daimler had serious personal problems with Nicholas Otto, when Daimler and Maybach worked for Otto.) Daimler and Maybach continued to advocate car manufacturing and as a result even left DMG for a short period. Daimler's friend, Frederick Simms, persuaded the financiers to take Gottflieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach back into faltering DMG in early 1896. Their business was re-merged with DMG’s. Daimler was appointed General Inspector, Maybach chief Technical Director and Simms a director of DMG.
From 1892, following the withdrawal of Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach to their own business to concentrate on cars, the enterprise had been close to a crisis but stabilised itself, selling mobile and stationary engines through a number of retailers around the world, from New York City to Moscow.
In 1900, Gottlieb Daimler died. Later DMG's successful Mercedes models based upon race cars designed by Wilhelm Maybach to the specifications of Emil Jellinek
(who wanted a more modern and safer car, following the death of Willhelm Bauer in a Daimler racer) changed the board's outlook in favour of the automobile. Maybach continued as designer for a while, but quit in 1909 and was replaced by Gottlieb's son, Paul.
. Production capacity was extended to Untertürkheim. In 1902, DMG produce the first Mercedes models, led by the 60, the most famous early model, and officially adopted Mercedes as its automobile trademark; capable of 120 km/h (75 mph), the 60 combined touring
and racing capacity, and was the top-status car to own (or for other makers, among them Berliet
, Rochet-Schneier, Martini {Switzerland}, Ariel {Britain}, Star
{Britain}, and FIAT
, to copy; in the U.S., Daimler Manufacturing Company {Long Island
, New York} may have built one under licence in association with Steinway
). In part due to the model 60's success, the number of DMG employees went from 821 (1903) to 2,200 (1904).
1906 to 1913 were further expansion years, with the creation of new capacity reducing the number of external suppliers. Increased mechanization took the annual productivity from 0.7 cars per worker, to 10. In 1911, shares of DMG were listed on the Stuttgart stock exchange
.
railroad. The local Mayor Eduard Fiechtner sold the land (185,000 square meters) at a low price and also arranged for a railroad extension with its own station and energy from the Neckar
's hydro-electric plant which had been built in 1900.
DMG had planned to open the facility in 1905 but the total destruction of Cannstatt's factory by fire in 1903 hastened the work and the new Art-Nouveau building, with a jagged-roof, was brought forward to start production in December 1903. The work force continued to grow.
On May 17, 1904, Unterturkheim became DMGs headquarters with the rest of the administration staff moving in on May 29. In 1913, an additional 220,000 square meters were acquired and between 1915 and 1918 it was extended further. By the 1920s, Untertürkheim had almost all the production processes on one site from foundries
to final car assembly. In 1925 the DMG design department also moved in.
.
The displaced workers received haven-salaries and additional bread rations. Neighboring businesses lent workshops, allowing production to continue. DMG created a Relief Fund (one of the first worker insurance schemes) and began building separator blocks in all its plants.
The following year, 1904, the whole operation moved to Untertürkheim. The last unit produced in Seelberg rolled out in the first weeks of 1905.
. After the war, limited by the Versailles Treaty, it produced only automobile bodies.
s by Daimler and Maybach began early, in 1886, with the Neckar (4.5 meters long with a speed of 11 km/h (6 knots)), the first in the world, and tested on the local Neckar river. That boat became DMG's first commercial hit, helped by the poor state of Germany's roads. Once the public corporation was formed, motorboat production became one of the new financiers' main interests and lead in 1902 to the building of the Berlin-Marienfelde factory specifically for their manufacture.
Daimler had sold automobile-engine licences all over the world including to France, Austria, the UK, and the United States through an agreement with the piano-maker Steinway
, in New York.
The first DMG automobile sale took place in August, 1892 (its registration still survives) to the Sultan of Morocco.
Commercial vehicles had also been made mainly using a Phoenix engine, but up to 1900, when Daimler died, the bodies had not been standardised.
In 1902, the Mercedes
car was built, compact and modern, with many improved features, a move which sparked the board's interest in automobile production. Mercedes then became DMG's main car brand name. There were some small exceptions: the Mercedes Simplex
of 1902-1909, (the name indicating it being "easy to drive") and the Mercedes Knight of 1910-1924, featuring Coventry Daimler's development of Charles Yale Knight's sleeve-valve engine
. All models were priced by their hp-rating.
The first truck, of 1.5 tons payload, was sold to London's British Motor Syndicate Ltd on October 1, 1896. Its rear-mounted Phoenix engine produced 4 hp at 700 rpm.
In 1897, the production of light commercial vehicles
began. At that time they were popularly called business vehicles, and were very successful in the United Kingdom.
At the first Paris Motor Show, in 1898, a 5-ton truck was displayed, with a front-mounted engine.
The Phoenix won the first car-race in history, The Paris to Rouen 1894, in the petrol engine category, even beating some steam-cars
,: .
Production of this engine which was put into cars, trucks, and boats became DMGs main product until the Mercedes car of 1902.
was created by Maybach to the order of the successful Austrian merchant Emil Jellinek
who became fascinated by both the Phoenix engine and race cars. The name was derived from an engine Maybach built to the specifications of Jellinek in 1900 that could achieve 35 hp. Jellinek had stipulated that the engine be called Daimler-Mercedes and when it was successful, he stipulated a new model in an edition of vehicles that he would market and use personally. Later this was referred to as the Mercedes 35 hp model. It was never marketed by DMG until its success was seen to be substainial.
Jellinek competed as a driver, painting "Mercedes" (Spanish for godsend), on the automobiles he raced after his 10-year-old daughter. Jellinek's pursuit of higher speed brought him to Stuttgart personally, to Wilhelm Maybach
's office where he also met with Paul Daimler
, son of Gottlieb. Together they designed a new kind of automobile that would be "larger, wider, and with a lower center of gravity". A small number would be produced for Jellinek under contract. This was the first true automobile designed by DMG, as opposed to a coach with an engine fitted into it.
Blending the technical refinements of Maybach's new 4-cylinder engine, with a new chassis the automobile stunned the motorsport
world of 1901. Jellinek had promised to purchase a large number of the race cars, (36 units for 550,000 Goldmark
), if he could also be the sole concessionaire in Austria-Hungary, France, Belgium, and the USA, using the name Daimler-Mercedes for the engine, and also become a member of the Board of Management.
In June 1902, after DMG realized that they had already conceded their Daimler trademark to Panhard & Levassor for the whole of France, they decided to name all their cars Mercedes after the engine and began to produce the Mercedes
series. The great demand for the car soon had DMG operating at full-capacity.
, but in the following years, both brands were equal.
and René Panhard
(then a timber-machinery manufacturers) selling their first engine in 1887.
Armand Peugeot
, one of their clients, began fitting vehicles with Panhard & Levassor engines, and acquired Daimlers licence from them. Peugeot focussed, successfully, on the German market.
Panhard & Levassor designed a complete automobile. Levassor mounted an engine (Daimler's) over the front axle, giving better balance and turning. Marketed in October 1891, it featured rear wheel drive by two side chains, pedal clutch, front radiator, and steering by lever.
Historians consider that the automobile was "a German invention, while France expanded it commercially", mainly by publicity from car-racing since in January 1886 Karl Benz
was granted the first patent for an automobile he designed and built in 1885.
In 1890 Hamburg-born Frederick Simms, a consulting engineer and a good personal friend of Gottlieb Daimler returned to the United Kingdom with the Phoenix engine for launches (though expressing thoughts for cars) having obtained from him British (and British Empire) rights to the Daimler patents. In 1893 Simms formed The Daimler Motor Syndicate Limited (DMS).
At the end of 1895 Simms received an offer from a London company promoter called Lawson of, at first, £35,000 to purchase all the Daimler rights. As part of the necessary arrangements, Maybach and Daimler having parted from DMG, Simms arranged to pay the now drifting DMG £17,100 on the condition that DMG took back Gottlieb Daimler. A 'contract of reassociation' was signed on 1 November 1895. The result was the divided Daimler-Maybach and DMG businesses then merged and were rejuvenated. In early 1896, having agreed with Daimler Motor Syndicate it would buy the Daimler rights, Lawson floated The Daimler Motor Company Limited (DMC)
in London (with Gottlieb Daimler a director), the works to be in a disused cotton mill in Coventry
. Simms became a director of DMG (Cannstatt) but not DMC (London).
In 1910 Daimler Motor Company while retaining a separate identity, merged ownership with that of BSA
(munitions), and began producing military vehicles.
For over 65 years, The Daimler Motor Company Limited produced a wide variety of premium quality vehicles including very many buses, ambulances, fire engines and some trucks but in particular medium-sized and large cars which were often very expensive. Their vehicles were distinguished by their finned exposed radiators, later by scalloped radiator shells. In 1960, the business was sold to Jaguar
, which soon engaged in badge-engineering and often Jaguar and Daimler cars could only be distinguished by the grille and name badge. In 2005 the only Daimler models being produced were luxury models, such as the Daimler Super Eight.
In July 2008 Tata Group, the current owners of Jaguar and Daimler, announced they were considering transforming Daimler into "a super-luxury marque to compete directly with Bentley and Rolls-Royce". Until the early 1950s it was often said "the aristocracy buy Daimlers, the nouveau riche buy Rolls-Royce".
in history in 1888, by adapting an engine to fit a balloon
. In 1897, Dr. Woelflin flew one over Berlin with a DMG engine.
From 1899 to 1907 DMG provided Maybach designed engines to Zeppelin
. Wilhelm Maybach
quit DMG in 1909. After 1909 Maybach and his son Karl founded their own enterprise in Württemberg
and took over supplying the engines.
During the First World War, from 1915 the Sindelfingen
factory produced large numbers of winged aircraft and aircraft engines. Production was prohibited after the conflict under conditions laid down by the Versailles Treaty.
, Daimler sent his wife Emma Kunz a postcard, marking his residence with a three-pointed star and writing: "one day this star will shine over our triumphant factories". Since then, this line has inspired both Daimler and Maybach when developing light and powerful engines for "land, water, and air".
In the 1900s, after the Mercedes success, DMG was still lacking a trademark. Paul and Adolf Daimler, the sons of Gottlieb (who had died in early March 1900), suggested using that symbol. Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft's board accepted the proposal in June 1909, also registering a four-pointed one (which has never been used).
The three-pointed star debuted in 1910. In 1916, it was surrounded by a circle with four additional stars, with either the name Mercedes or of the respective factory (Untertürkheim or Berlin-Marienfelde). In 1937, the familiar symbol was registered by Daimler-Benz, a three-dimensional three-pointed star, contained in a circle.
After the war the German automobile industry stagnated because of insufficient demand and because automobiles were taxed by the government as luxury items. The country also was hit by a petrol shortage.
In 1923, DMG production fell to 1,020 units, compared to Benz & Cie. making 1,382 in Mannheim
. The average cost of a car was 25 million marks
. Strike action and inflation pushed DMG to the limit. To survive DMG produced Mercedes bicycles and typewriters, and it even issued its own emergency money.
On June 28, 1926, DMG and Benz & Cie. merged into Daimler-Benz AG, establishing its headquarters in the Untertürkheim factory.
Their automobiles were named Mercedes Benz, in honour of DMG's most important car model and the last name of Karl Benz
. Its new trademark consisted of a three-pointed star surrounded by the traditional laurels of Karl Benz's logo and labeled Mercedes Benz. The next year, 1927, the number of units sold tripled to 7,918, and diesel
truck production was launched.
Daimler
- Daimler with reference to motor vehicles :refers to:* Gottlieb Daimler , German automobile inventor- Business co-founded by Gottlieb Daimler :...
) was a German engine and later automobile manufacturer, in operation from 1890 until 1926. Founded by Gottlieb Daimler
Gottlieb Daimler
Gottlieb Daimler was an engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf , in what is now Germany. He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development...
and Wilhelm Maybach
Wilhelm Maybach
Wilhelm Maybach was an early German engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he was hailed in France, then the world centre for car production, as the "King of constructors"....
, it was based first in Cannstatt (today Bad Cannstatt, a city district of Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
). Daimler died in 1900, and their business moved in 1903 to Stuttgart-Untertürkheim after the original factory was destroyed by fire, and again to Berlin in 1922. Other factories were located in Marienfelde
Marienfelde
Marienfelde is a locality in southwest Berlin. It is a mixed industrial and residential area, and part of the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg.-Transportation and industry:...
(near Berlin) and Sindelfingen
Sindelfingen
Sindelfingen is a German town near Stuttgart at the headwaters of the Schwippe that is the site of a Mercedes-Benz assembly plant.-History:* 1155 First documented mention of Sindelfingen...
(next to Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
).
The enterprise was begun to produce petrol engines but after the success of a small number of race cars built on contract by Wilhelm Maybach for Emil Jellinek
Emil Jellinek
Emil Jellinek, known after 1903 as Emil Jellinek-Mercedes was a wealthy European entrepreneur who sat on the board of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft between 1900 and 1909. He specified an engine designed there by Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler for the first 'modern' car...
, it began to produce the Mercedes
Mercedes (car)
Mercedes was a brand of the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft . DMG which began to develop in 1900, after the death of its co-founder, Gottlieb Daimler...
model of 1902. After this automobile production expanded to become DMGs main product, and it built several models.
Because of the post World War One German economic crisis, DMG merged in 1926 with Benz & Cie., becoming Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and internal combustion engines; founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest - which was valid until year 2000 - was signed on 1 May 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had...
and adopting Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
as its automobile trademark. A further merger occurred in 1998 with Chrysler
Chrysler
Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....
to become DaimlerChrysler. The name was finally changed to just Daimler AG in 2007 when Chrysler was sold.
Daimler, Maybach, and DMG at Seelberg
By 1882 both Daimler and Maybach had left Nikolaus Otto's Deutz AG GasmotorenfabrikDeutz AG
Deutz AG is an engine manufacturer, based in Cologne, Germany.-History:The company was founded by Nikolaus Otto, inventor of the four-stroke internal combustion engine, in 1864 as N. A...
. In 1890 they founded their own engine business, Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG). Its purpose was the construction of small, high speed engines they had developed based on the same stationary engine
Stationary engine
A stationary engine is an engine whose framework does not move. It is normally used not to propel a vehicle but to drive a piece of immobile equipment such as a pump or power tool. They may be powered by steam; or oil-burning or internal combustion engines....
technology.
DMG thus grew out of an extension of the independent businesses of Daimler and Maybach, who would revolutionize the world with their inventions for the automobile of a four-stroke petrol engine
Four-stroke cycle
A four-stroke engine, also known as four-cycle, is an internal combustion engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes—intake, compression, power, and exhaust—during two separate revolutions of the engine's crankshaft, and one single thermodynamic cycle.There are two...
, carburetor
Carburetor
A carburetor , carburettor, or carburetter is a device that blends air and fuel for an internal combustion engine. It is sometimes shortened to carb in North America and the United Kingdom....
, and so on. They would manufacture small internal combustion engines suitable for use on land, sea, and in the air (the basis for a symbol Daimler devised of a three pointed star, with each point indicating a different way).
On July 5, 1887, Daimler purchased a property in Seelberg Hill (Cannstatt) previously owned by Zeitler & Missel who had used it as a precious metal foundry. The site covered 2,903 square meters, cost 30,200 Goldmark
German gold mark
The Goldmark was the currency used in the German Empire from 1873 to 1914.-History:Before unification, the different German states issued a variety of different currencies, though most were linked to the Vereinsthaler, a silver coin containing 16⅔ grams of pure silver...
, and from it they produced engines for their successful Neckar
Neckar
The Neckar is a long river, mainly flowing through the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, but also a short section through Hesse, in Germany. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the River Rhine...
motorboat. They also sold licences for others to make their engine products and Seelberg became a centre of the rapidly growing automobile industry.
Daimler ran into financial problems because sales were not high enough and the licences didn't yield significant profit. An agreement was reached with the financiers Max Von Duttenhofer and William Lorenz
William Lorenz
William F. Lorenz, M.D. was a Major in the United States Army Medical Corps during World War I. He was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal for his combat actions in France...
, both of whom were also munitions manufacturers, along with the influential banker Kilian von Steiner
Kilian von Steiner
Kilian von Steiner was a German banker and industrialist.Born in Laupheim as the eighth child of Jewish merchant Viktor Steiner and his wife Sophie, Kilian Steiner spent his youth in the small Upper Swabian town...
, who owned an Investment Bank, to convert the private business to a public corporation in 1890. (This agreement is regarded by some historians as a "devil's pact"http://zeus.zeit.de/text/2004/15/M-Daimler, as the inventors never got along with the new status.)
Not really believing in automobile production the financiers expanded the stationary engine business, as they were selling well, and even considered a merger with Otto's Deutz-AG. (During 1882, Gottflieb Daimler had serious personal problems with Nicholas Otto, when Daimler and Maybach worked for Otto.) Daimler and Maybach continued to advocate car manufacturing and as a result even left DMG for a short period. Daimler's friend, Frederick Simms, persuaded the financiers to take Gottflieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach back into faltering DMG in early 1896. Their business was re-merged with DMG’s. Daimler was appointed General Inspector, Maybach chief Technical Director and Simms a director of DMG.
From 1892, following the withdrawal of Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach to their own business to concentrate on cars, the enterprise had been close to a crisis but stabilised itself, selling mobile and stationary engines through a number of retailers around the world, from New York City to Moscow.
In 1900, Gottlieb Daimler died. Later DMG's successful Mercedes models based upon race cars designed by Wilhelm Maybach to the specifications of Emil Jellinek
Emil Jellinek
Emil Jellinek, known after 1903 as Emil Jellinek-Mercedes was a wealthy European entrepreneur who sat on the board of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft between 1900 and 1909. He specified an engine designed there by Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler for the first 'modern' car...
(who wanted a more modern and safer car, following the death of Willhelm Bauer in a Daimler racer) changed the board's outlook in favour of the automobile. Maybach continued as designer for a while, but quit in 1909 and was replaced by Gottlieb's son, Paul.
Expansion (1902 to 1920)
DMGs automobile sales took off, particularly with the first Daimler-Mercedes engine designed by Maybach placed into several race cars of 1900 built for Emil Jellinek. That race car was later referred to as the Mercedes 35 hpMercedes 35 hp
The Mercedes 35 hp was a radical early car model designed in 1901 by Wilhelm Maybach and Paul Daimler, for Emil Jellinek. Produced in Stuttgart, Germany, by the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft , it began the Mercedes line of cars .A significant advancement over the previous generation of...
. Production capacity was extended to Untertürkheim. In 1902, DMG produce the first Mercedes models, led by the 60, the most famous early model, and officially adopted Mercedes as its automobile trademark; capable of 120 km/h (75 mph), the 60 combined touring
Grand tourer
A grand tourer is a high-performance luxury automobile designed for long-distance driving. The most common format is a two-door coupé with either a two-seat or a 2+2 arrangement....
and racing capacity, and was the top-status car to own (or for other makers, among them Berliet
Berliet
Berliet was a French manufacturer of automobiles, buses, trucks and other utility vehicles, based in Vénissieux, outside of Lyon, France.-Early history:...
, Rochet-Schneier, Martini {Switzerland}, Ariel {Britain}, Star
Star Motor Company
The Star Motor Company was a British car and commercial vehicle maker based in Wolverhampton and active from 1898 to 1932.Star was founded by the Lisle family who like many other vehicle makers started by making bicycles, in their case in 1893 as Sharratt and Lisle...
{Britain}, and FIAT
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
, to copy; in the U.S., Daimler Manufacturing Company {Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York} may have built one under licence in association with Steinway
Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway , is an American and German manufacturer of handmade pianos, founded 1853 in Manhattan in New York City by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg...
). In part due to the model 60's success, the number of DMG employees went from 821 (1903) to 2,200 (1904).
1906 to 1913 were further expansion years, with the creation of new capacity reducing the number of external suppliers. Increased mechanization took the annual productivity from 0.7 cars per worker, to 10. In 1911, shares of DMG were listed on the Stuttgart stock exchange
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
.
Berlin-Marienfelde
On October 2, 1902, DMG opened a new works in the mountainous region to the south of Berlin. Its scope was initially limited to motorboat and marine engines. Later, it expanded into making trucks (1905) and fire trucks (1907). The region became a centre of the automobile industry, and other businesses moved in.Untertürkheim
Untertürkheim was an ideal location to site a large factory as it was close to both the Neckar river and the Stuttgart-UlmUlm
Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...
railroad. The local Mayor Eduard Fiechtner sold the land (185,000 square meters) at a low price and also arranged for a railroad extension with its own station and energy from the Neckar
Neckar
The Neckar is a long river, mainly flowing through the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, but also a short section through Hesse, in Germany. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the River Rhine...
's hydro-electric plant which had been built in 1900.
DMG had planned to open the facility in 1905 but the total destruction of Cannstatt's factory by fire in 1903 hastened the work and the new Art-Nouveau building, with a jagged-roof, was brought forward to start production in December 1903. The work force continued to grow.
On May 17, 1904, Unterturkheim became DMGs headquarters with the rest of the administration staff moving in on May 29. In 1913, an additional 220,000 square meters were acquired and between 1915 and 1918 it was extended further. By the 1920s, Untertürkheim had almost all the production processes on one site from foundries
Foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron...
to final car assembly. In 1925 the DMG design department also moved in.
The Cannstatt Fire (1903)
On the night of June 10, 1903, the original Seelberg-Cannstatt plant suffered a great fire. All the machinery and 93 finished Mercedes cars, a quarter of the annual production, were destroyed, together with a small museum with historical items like Daimler-Maybach's first ever motorcycle, the ReitwagenDaimler Reitwagen
The Daimler Reitwagen or Einspur was a motor vehicle made by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in 1885, and is widely recognized as the first motorcycle. Daimler is often called "the father of the motorcycle" for this invention...
.
The displaced workers received haven-salaries and additional bread rations. Neighboring businesses lent workshops, allowing production to continue. DMG created a Relief Fund (one of the first worker insurance schemes) and began building separator blocks in all its plants.
The following year, 1904, the whole operation moved to Untertürkheim. The last unit produced in Seelberg rolled out in the first weeks of 1905.
Sindelfingen
At the outbreak of the First World War, in 1914, there was a rush to produce war supplies. In the autumn of 1915, DMG opened the Sindelfingen factory for military vehicles, aircraft engines, and even entire aircraftFixed-wing aircraft
A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...
. After the war, limited by the Versailles Treaty, it produced only automobile bodies.
Motorboats
The production of motorboatMotorboat
A motorboat is a boat which is powered by an engine. Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the gearbox and the propeller in one portable unit.An inboard/outboard contains a hybrid of a...
s by Daimler and Maybach began early, in 1886, with the Neckar (4.5 meters long with a speed of 11 km/h (6 knots)), the first in the world, and tested on the local Neckar river. That boat became DMG's first commercial hit, helped by the poor state of Germany's roads. Once the public corporation was formed, motorboat production became one of the new financiers' main interests and lead in 1902 to the building of the Berlin-Marienfelde factory specifically for their manufacture.
Automobiles
Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway , is an American and German manufacturer of handmade pianos, founded 1853 in Manhattan in New York City by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg...
, in New York.
The first DMG automobile sale took place in August, 1892 (its registration still survives) to the Sultan of Morocco.
Commercial vehicles had also been made mainly using a Phoenix engine, but up to 1900, when Daimler died, the bodies had not been standardised.
In 1902, the Mercedes
Mercedes (car)
Mercedes was a brand of the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft . DMG which began to develop in 1900, after the death of its co-founder, Gottlieb Daimler...
car was built, compact and modern, with many improved features, a move which sparked the board's interest in automobile production. Mercedes then became DMG's main car brand name. There were some small exceptions: the Mercedes Simplex
Mercedes Simplex
The Mercedes Simplex was an car produced from 1902-09 by the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft . It continued the use of the Mercedes name as the brand of DMG, rather than Daimler....
of 1902-1909, (the name indicating it being "easy to drive") and the Mercedes Knight of 1910-1924, featuring Coventry Daimler's development of Charles Yale Knight's sleeve-valve engine
Sleeve valve
The sleeve valve is a type of valve mechanism for piston engines, distinct from the usual poppet valve. Sleeve-valve engines saw use in a number of pre-World War II luxury cars and in USA in the Willys-Knight car and light truck...
. All models were priced by their hp-rating.
The first truck, of 1.5 tons payload, was sold to London's British Motor Syndicate Ltd on October 1, 1896. Its rear-mounted Phoenix engine produced 4 hp at 700 rpm.
In 1897, the production of light commercial vehicles
Van
A van is a kind of vehicle used for transporting goods or groups of people.In British English usage, it can be either specially designed or based on a saloon or sedan car, the latter type often including derivatives with open backs...
began. At that time they were popularly called business vehicles, and were very successful in the United Kingdom.
At the first Paris Motor Show, in 1898, a 5-ton truck was displayed, with a front-mounted engine.
Phoenix (1894)
In 1894, while working from temporary premises in the unused Hermann Hotel in Cannstatt, Gottlieb Daimler, his son Paul, and Wilhelm Maybach designed the Phoenix engine. It amazed the automobile world with:- four cylinders placed vertical and parallel (a first for an automobile engine)
- camshaftCamshaftA camshaft is a shaft to which a cam is fastened or of which a cam forms an integral part.-History:An early cam was built into Hellenistic water-driven automata from the 3rd century BC. The camshaft was later described in Iraq by Al-Jazari in 1206. He employed it as part of his automata,...
-operated exhaust valves - spray-nozzle carburetorCarburetorA carburetor , carburettor, or carburetter is a device that blends air and fuel for an internal combustion engine. It is sometimes shortened to carb in North America and the United Kingdom....
(patented by Maybach in 1893) - improvements in the belt-drive systemPowertrainIn a motor vehicle, the term powertrain or powerplant refers to the group of components that generate power and deliver it to the road surface, water, or air. This includes the engine, transmission, drive shafts, differentials, and the final drive...
.
The Phoenix won the first car-race in history, The Paris to Rouen 1894, in the petrol engine category, even beating some steam-cars
Steam car
A steam car is a light car powered by a steam engine.Steam locomotives, steam engines capable of propelling themselves along either road or rails, developed around one hundred years earlier than internal combustion engine cars although their weight restricted them to agricultural and heavy haulage...
,: .
Production of this engine which was put into cars, trucks, and boats became DMGs main product until the Mercedes car of 1902.
Mercedes (1900)
In 1902 an automobile that would later be called the Mercedes 35 hpMercedes 35 hp
The Mercedes 35 hp was a radical early car model designed in 1901 by Wilhelm Maybach and Paul Daimler, for Emil Jellinek. Produced in Stuttgart, Germany, by the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft , it began the Mercedes line of cars .A significant advancement over the previous generation of...
was created by Maybach to the order of the successful Austrian merchant Emil Jellinek
Emil Jellinek
Emil Jellinek, known after 1903 as Emil Jellinek-Mercedes was a wealthy European entrepreneur who sat on the board of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft between 1900 and 1909. He specified an engine designed there by Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler for the first 'modern' car...
who became fascinated by both the Phoenix engine and race cars. The name was derived from an engine Maybach built to the specifications of Jellinek in 1900 that could achieve 35 hp. Jellinek had stipulated that the engine be called Daimler-Mercedes and when it was successful, he stipulated a new model in an edition of vehicles that he would market and use personally. Later this was referred to as the Mercedes 35 hp model. It was never marketed by DMG until its success was seen to be substainial.
Jellinek competed as a driver, painting "Mercedes" (Spanish for godsend), on the automobiles he raced after his 10-year-old daughter. Jellinek's pursuit of higher speed brought him to Stuttgart personally, to Wilhelm Maybach
Wilhelm Maybach
Wilhelm Maybach was an early German engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he was hailed in France, then the world centre for car production, as the "King of constructors"....
's office where he also met with Paul Daimler
Paul Daimler
Paul Daimler was a German mechanical engineer who designed automobiles. He was the son of Gottlieb Daimler of Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft who had invented the petrol engine with Wilhelm Maybach....
, son of Gottlieb. Together they designed a new kind of automobile that would be "larger, wider, and with a lower center of gravity". A small number would be produced for Jellinek under contract. This was the first true automobile designed by DMG, as opposed to a coach with an engine fitted into it.
Blending the technical refinements of Maybach's new 4-cylinder engine, with a new chassis the automobile stunned the motorsport
Motorsport
Motorsport or motorsports is the group of sports which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles, whether for racing or non-racing competition...
world of 1901. Jellinek had promised to purchase a large number of the race cars, (36 units for 550,000 Goldmark
German gold mark
The Goldmark was the currency used in the German Empire from 1873 to 1914.-History:Before unification, the different German states issued a variety of different currencies, though most were linked to the Vereinsthaler, a silver coin containing 16⅔ grams of pure silver...
), if he could also be the sole concessionaire in Austria-Hungary, France, Belgium, and the USA, using the name Daimler-Mercedes for the engine, and also become a member of the Board of Management.
In June 1902, after DMG realized that they had already conceded their Daimler trademark to Panhard & Levassor for the whole of France, they decided to name all their cars Mercedes after the engine and began to produce the Mercedes
Mercedes (car)
Mercedes was a brand of the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft . DMG which began to develop in 1900, after the death of its co-founder, Gottlieb Daimler...
series. The great demand for the car soon had DMG operating at full-capacity.
Racing
In these early years, car races were used as advertising for their makers. Therefore, both DMG and Benz & Cie., their great rival, put the best of their cars on the track. Daimler cars were able to beat Benz until 1908, when a Benz achieved the land speed recordLand speed record
The land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a wheeled vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C flying start regulations are used, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the Fédération...
, but in the following years, both brands were equal.
First automobile multinational
DMG expanded with a subsidiary company in Austria- Austro Daimler
French licences
Edouard Sarazin began early negotiations to license Gottlieb Daimler's engines in France. After his death, his wife finally succeeded, helped by Émile LevassorEmile Levassor
Émile Levassor was a French engineer and a pioneer of the automobile industry and car racing in France.- Biography :...
and René Panhard
René Panhard
Louis François René Panhard was a French engineer, merchant and a pioneer of the automobile industry in France....
(then a timber-machinery manufacturers) selling their first engine in 1887.
Armand Peugeot
Armand Peugeot
Armand Peugeot was a French industrialist, pioneer of the automobile industry and the founder of the French firm Peugeot.-Family:...
, one of their clients, began fitting vehicles with Panhard & Levassor engines, and acquired Daimlers licence from them. Peugeot focussed, successfully, on the German market.
Panhard & Levassor designed a complete automobile. Levassor mounted an engine (Daimler's) over the front axle, giving better balance and turning. Marketed in October 1891, it featured rear wheel drive by two side chains, pedal clutch, front radiator, and steering by lever.
Historians consider that the automobile was "a German invention, while France expanded it commercially", mainly by publicity from car-racing since in January 1886 Karl Benz
Karl Benz
Karl Friedrich Benz, was a German engine designer and car engineer, generally regarded as the inventor of the gasoline-powered car, and together with Bertha Benz pioneering founder of the automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz...
was granted the first patent for an automobile he designed and built in 1885.
British licences, The Daimler Motor Company Limited
At the end of 1895 Simms received an offer from a London company promoter called Lawson of, at first, £35,000 to purchase all the Daimler rights. As part of the necessary arrangements, Maybach and Daimler having parted from DMG, Simms arranged to pay the now drifting DMG £17,100 on the condition that DMG took back Gottlieb Daimler. A 'contract of reassociation' was signed on 1 November 1895. The result was the divided Daimler-Maybach and DMG businesses then merged and were rejuvenated. In early 1896, having agreed with Daimler Motor Syndicate it would buy the Daimler rights, Lawson floated The Daimler Motor Company Limited (DMC)
Daimler Motor Company
The Daimler Motor Company Limited was an independent British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in London by H J Lawson in 1896, which set up its manufacturing base in Coventry. The right to the use of the name Daimler had been purchased simultaneously from Gottlieb Daimler and Daimler Motoren...
in London (with Gottlieb Daimler a director), the works to be in a disused cotton mill in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
. Simms became a director of DMG (Cannstatt) but not DMC (London).
In 1910 Daimler Motor Company while retaining a separate identity, merged ownership with that of BSA
Birmingham Small Arms Company
This article is not about Gamo subsidiary BSA Guns Limited of Armoury Road, Small Heath, Birmingham B11 2PP or BSA Company or its successors....
(munitions), and began producing military vehicles.
For over 65 years, The Daimler Motor Company Limited produced a wide variety of premium quality vehicles including very many buses, ambulances, fire engines and some trucks but in particular medium-sized and large cars which were often very expensive. Their vehicles were distinguished by their finned exposed radiators, later by scalloped radiator shells. In 1960, the business was sold to Jaguar
Jaguar (car)
Jaguar Cars Ltd, known simply as Jaguar , is a British luxury car manufacturer, headquartered in Whitley, Coventry, England. It is part of the Jaguar Land Rover business, a subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors....
, which soon engaged in badge-engineering and often Jaguar and Daimler cars could only be distinguished by the grille and name badge. In 2005 the only Daimler models being produced were luxury models, such as the Daimler Super Eight.
In July 2008 Tata Group, the current owners of Jaguar and Daimler, announced they were considering transforming Daimler into "a super-luxury marque to compete directly with Bentley and Rolls-Royce". Until the early 1950s it was often said "the aristocracy buy Daimlers, the nouveau riche buy Rolls-Royce".
Airships and fixed-wing aircraft
Daimler flew the first airshipAirship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...
in history in 1888, by adapting an engine to fit a balloon
Balloon (aircraft)
A balloon is a type of aircraft that remains aloft due to its buoyancy. A balloon travels by moving with the wind. It is distinct from an airship, which is a buoyant aircraft that can be propelled through the air in a controlled manner....
. In 1897, Dr. Woelflin flew one over Berlin with a DMG engine.
From 1899 to 1907 DMG provided Maybach designed engines to Zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...
. Wilhelm Maybach
Wilhelm Maybach
Wilhelm Maybach was an early German engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he was hailed in France, then the world centre for car production, as the "King of constructors"....
quit DMG in 1909. After 1909 Maybach and his son Karl founded their own enterprise in Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
and took over supplying the engines.
During the First World War, from 1915 the Sindelfingen
Sindelfingen
Sindelfingen is a German town near Stuttgart at the headwaters of the Schwippe that is the site of a Mercedes-Benz assembly plant.-History:* 1155 First documented mention of Sindelfingen...
factory produced large numbers of winged aircraft and aircraft engines. Production was prohibited after the conflict under conditions laid down by the Versailles Treaty.
Three-pointed star: land, water and air
In the 1870s, while working for Otto at Deutz AG Gasmotorenfabrik in CologneCologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Daimler sent his wife Emma Kunz a postcard, marking his residence with a three-pointed star and writing: "one day this star will shine over our triumphant factories". Since then, this line has inspired both Daimler and Maybach when developing light and powerful engines for "land, water, and air".
In the 1900s, after the Mercedes success, DMG was still lacking a trademark. Paul and Adolf Daimler, the sons of Gottlieb (who had died in early March 1900), suggested using that symbol. Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft's board accepted the proposal in June 1909, also registering a four-pointed one (which has never been used).
The three-pointed star debuted in 1910. In 1916, it was surrounded by a circle with four additional stars, with either the name Mercedes or of the respective factory (Untertürkheim or Berlin-Marienfelde). In 1937, the familiar symbol was registered by Daimler-Benz, a three-dimensional three-pointed star, contained in a circle.
German crisis (1920s)
DMG was one of the most important German businesses at the time of the German crisis; tripling its capital to 100 million shares in 1920, and moving its headquarters to Berlin in 1922.After the war the German automobile industry stagnated because of insufficient demand and because automobiles were taxed by the government as luxury items. The country also was hit by a petrol shortage.
In 1923, DMG production fell to 1,020 units, compared to Benz & Cie. making 1,382 in Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
. The average cost of a car was 25 million marks
German papiermark
The name Papiermark is applied to the German currency from the 4th August 1914 when the link between the Mark and gold was abandoned, due to the outbreak of World War I...
. Strike action and inflation pushed DMG to the limit. To survive DMG produced Mercedes bicycles and typewriters, and it even issued its own emergency money.
Daimler-Benz and the Mercedes-Benz brand (1926)
For the two separate businesses to survive the financial problems of the day, in 1919, Benz & Cie. proposed a merger, but DMG formally rejected it in December. Then, as the German crisis worsened, the struggling firms met again in 1924 and signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest, valid until the year 2000. They standardized design, production, purchasing, sales, and advertising—marketing their car models jointly—although keeping their respective brands.On June 28, 1926, DMG and Benz & Cie. merged into Daimler-Benz AG, establishing its headquarters in the Untertürkheim factory.
Their automobiles were named Mercedes Benz, in honour of DMG's most important car model and the last name of Karl Benz
Karl Benz
Karl Friedrich Benz, was a German engine designer and car engineer, generally regarded as the inventor of the gasoline-powered car, and together with Bertha Benz pioneering founder of the automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz...
. Its new trademark consisted of a three-pointed star surrounded by the traditional laurels of Karl Benz's logo and labeled Mercedes Benz. The next year, 1927, the number of units sold tripled to 7,918, and diesel
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
truck production was launched.
Trivia
- In 1890, DMG was delivering stationary and marine engines to Russia. In 1910, it opened its first dealership in Moscow. From 1912, it was a purveyor to the Russian Royal CourtRoyal familyA royal family is the extended family of a king or queen regnant. The term imperial family appropriately describes the extended family of an emperor or empress, while the terms "ducal family", "grand ducal family" or "princely family" are more appropriate to describe the relatives of a reigning...
. Even after the war and the socialist revolutionHistory of the Soviet UnionThe history of the Soviet Union has roots in the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, emerged as the main political force in the capital of the former Russian Empire, though they had to fight a long and brutal civil war against the Mensheviks, or Whites...
, the Mercedes won most of the great showAuto showAn auto show, or motor show, is a public exhibition of current automobile models, debuts, concept cars, or out-of-production classics. It is commonly attended by automobile manufacturers. Most auto shows occur once or twice a year...
competitions it entered in Russia. - In 1892, DMG designated Otto Speidel as its Munich representative.
- In 1896, Bavarian Engine & Automobile also began to sell their products, naming Karl Moll as representative in 1898.
- In 1910, it opened a shop for trucks, buses and motorboats in Hiltenspergerstrasse 21.
- In 1914, in Paris, one of the greatest races in history took place, with 37 cars of six manufacturers from six countries. To beat the favorite PeugeotPeugeotPeugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...
team, DMG used an aircraft engine designed by Paul Daimler and Fritz Nalliger. It was built by the automobile department but tested by the airship department. The cars produced 105 hp at 3100 rpm (no Mercedes had exceeded 1500 rpm before then). It had four steel cylinders (M93654), and sixteen valves, an aluminum crankcase, crankshafts of special Austrian steel, a single camshaft, and displaced 4483 cc. - In 1921, DMG presented the supercharged Mercedes Kompressormotor, successful in both the private market and on the race track.
See also
- Gottlieb DaimlerGottlieb DaimlerGottlieb Daimler was an engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf , in what is now Germany. He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development...
- Wilhelm MaybachWilhelm MaybachWilhelm Maybach was an early German engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he was hailed in France, then the world centre for car production, as the "King of constructors"....
- Mercedes BenzMercedes-BenzMercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
- Daimler AG