Emil Jellinek
Encyclopedia
Emil Jellinek, known after 1903 as Emil Jellinek-Mercedes (6 April 1853 – 21 January 1918) was a wealthy European entrepreneur who sat on the board of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft ('DMG') between 1900 and 1909. He specified an engine designed there by Wilhelm Maybach
and Gottlieb Daimler
for the first 'modern' car. Jellinek required naming the engine after his daughter, Mercedes Jellinek
. The Mercedes 35hp model later contributed to the brand name developed in 1926, Mercedes-Benz
, when DMG
and Benz & Cie. merged into what is now among the largest car brands in the world. Jellinek lived in Vienna
, Austria
but later moved to Nice
on the French Riviera
, where he was the General Consul to Austria-Hungary
.
, Germany
, the son of Dr Adolf Jellinek
(sometimes known also as Aaron Jellinek). His father was a well-known Czech
-Hungarian rabbi
and intellectual in the Jewish collective around Leipzig and Vienna. Jellinek's mother Rosalie Bettelheim (born 1832 in Budapest
, died 1892 in Baden bei Wien
) was an active rebbitzen. He had two brothers, both of whom achieved fame: Max Hermann Jellinek as a linguist
, and Georg Jellinek
as an international law
teacher. His sisters were Charlotte and Pauline.
The family moved, shortly after Jellinek's birth, to Vienna. He found paying attention to school work difficult and dropped out of several schools including Sonderhausen. His parents were displeased with his performance, while Jellinek began to indulge in practical jokes. In 1870, when he was 17, his parents found him a job as a clerk in a Moravia
n railway company, Rot-Koestelec North-Western. Jellinek lasted two years at this company before being sacked when the management discovered that he had been organising train races late at night.
. There, through his father's connections, Schmidl, the Austro-Hungarian Consul in Morocco
, requested his services getting Jellinek diplomatic posts at Tangier
and Tetouan
successively. In Tetouan he met Rachel Goggmann Cenrobert an African born lady of French-Sepharadi descent.
In 1874 he was called up for military service
in Vienna but was declared unfit. He resumed his diplomatic career as Austrian vice-consul at Oran
, Algeria
and also began trading Algerian grown tobacco
to Europe in partnership with Rachel's father.
He also worked as an inspector for the French Aigle insurance
company and traveled to Vienna briefly in 1881 at the age of 28 to open one of its branch offices. Returning to Oran, he finally married Rachel, and their first two sons Adolph and Fernand were born there.
Two years later in 1884, Jellinek joined the insurance company full time and moved with the family to Baden bei Wien
, Austria, where they lived in the house of a wine dealer named Hanni. In Baden in 1889 his first daughter, Adrienne Manuela Ramona Jellinek
, was born on September 16, and called Mercédès, the name Mercédès meaning "gifts" or "favors" in Spanish. Rachel died 4 years after the birth of her daughter. Even so, Jellinek came to believe the name Mercedes brought good fortune and called all his properties after it. One of his sons wrote: “He was as superstious as the ancient Romans.”
Jellinek's insurance business and stock-market trading became very successful, and they started to spend the winters in Nice
on the fashionable French Riviera, eventually moving there and establishing links with both international business people and the local aristocracy.
It was in Nice that Jellinek became enthralled by the automobile, studying any information that he could gather about it and purchasing successively: a De Dion-Bouton
, a Léon-Bollée Voiturette
, both tricycles, and a four-seat Benz motorized-coach.
Helped by his diplomatic career, he became the Austrian Consul General in Nice, Jellinek began selling automobiles, mainly French makes, to European aristocrats spending winter vacations in the region. Associated with the automobile business were Leon Desjoyeaux, from Nice, and C. L. “Charley” Lehmann, from Paris
. He acquired a large mansion which he named Villa Mercedes to run the business from and by 1897 he was selling about 140 cars a year and started calling them Mercedes. The car business was by now more profitable than his insurance work.
Rachel died in 1893 and was buried in Nice. In 1899 he married again to Madelaine Henriette Engler (Anaise Jellinek), and had four more children Alain Didier, Guy, Rene and Andree (Maya).
in 1896 to find out more about the company and its factory and the designers Gottlieb Daimler
and Wilhelm Maybach
. He placed an order for one of the Daimler cars which was delivered in October of that year.
The car was a Phoenix Double-Phaeton with 8 hp engine and capable of reaching 24 km/h (15 mph). Maybach had designed the DMG-Phoenix engine, which featured four cylinders for the first time in a car, in 1894 when staying at Stuttgart's former Hermann Hotel.
DMG seemed a reliable enterprise, so Jellinek decided to start selling its cars. In 1898 he wrote to DMG requesting six more cars and to become a DMG main agent and distributor. In 1899 he sold 10 cars and in 1900 29. As well as French car makers such as Peugeot
and Panhard & Levassor
and other makers licensed to sell Daimler engined vehicles in France, there was a shortage of cars and Jellinek benefitted by being able to beat other suppliers lengthy waiting times.
Jellinek kept contacting DMG's designers with his ideas, some good but often with harangues such as: "Your manure wagon has just broken down on schedule", "Your car is a cocoon and I want the butterfly" or "Your engineers should be locked up in an insane asylum." This annoyed Daimler but Maybach took notice of many of his suggestions.
Every year in March, the French Riviera
celebrated a speed-week, attracting many of the local high-society.
The events included:
In 1899 Jellinek entered his cars in all of them. As the usage of pseudonyms was common, he called his race-team Mercedes and this was visibly written on the cars' chassis. Monsieur Mercedes became his personal alias and he became well known by it in the region.
Using the DMG-Phoenix, Jellinek easily won all the races, reaching 35 kilometre per hour, but he was still not satisfied with the car.
In 1899 DMG commissioned some engineers including Wilhelm Bauer, Wilhelm Werner and Hermann Braun, to investigate the possibility of using the Phoenix for sporting events as at that time car racing was the best way of generating publicity in Europe.
On March 30, 1900 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, Jellinek came to an agreement with DMG on April 2, 1900 by promising the large sum of 550,000 Goldmark
if Wilhelm Maybach would design a revolutionary sports car for him, to be called the Mercedes, of which 36 units had to be delivered before October 15. The deal also included an order for 36 standard DMG 8 hp cars. Jellinek also became a member of DMG 's Board of Management and obtained the exclusive dealership for the new Mercedes for France, Austria, Hungary, Belgium and United States of America. Jellinek had some legal problems over the use of the Daimler name in France with Panhard Levassor who owned the Daimler licences for France, and the use of the Mercedes name put an end to that problem.
Jellinek laid down a strict specification for the Mercedes 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 them unsuitable for high speeds and at risk of overturning:
The model would be officially called the Daimler-Mercedes which the DMG chairman accepted readily as it overcame the problem of the Daimler name in France being owned by Panhard & Levassor.
Over the next few months, Jellinek oversaw the development of the new car at first by daily telegrams and later by traveling to Stuttgart. He took delivery of the first one on December 22, 1900, at Nice's railway station - it had already been sold to the Baron Henry of Rothschild who had also raced cars in Nice.
In 1901, the car amazed the automobile world. Jellinek again won the Nice races, easily beating his opponents in all the capacity classes and reaching 60 kilometre per hour. The director of the French Automobile Club
, Paul Meyan, stated: "We have entered the Mercedes era", a sentiment echoed by newspapers worldwide.
The records set by the new Mercedes amazed the entire automobile world. DMG's sales shot up, filling its Stuttgart plant to full capacity and consolidating its future as a car making company. The number of employees steadily increased from 340 in 1900 to 2,200 in 1904. In 1902, on June 23, the company decided to use the Mercedes name as the trademark for its entire automobile production and officially registered it on September 26.
Jellinek and his enthusiastic associates were distributing DMG-Mercedes models worldwide, six hundred were sold by 1909, making millions for DMG. He supplied cars to all 150 members of Nice's Automobile Club and also supported racing teams all over Europe. His life was absorbed by the business, spending much time away from home, and sending many telegrams.
As the 1900s continued, his passion for the Mercedes began to fade. He tired of the special requests being made by his highly demanding aristocratic customers. He also became disillusioned by DMG's technical department which he called "those donkeys" and built his own large repair facilities at Nice behind Villa Mercedes. Wilhelm Maybach, his favorite designer, left DMG in 1907. He also so angered DMG's chairman that in 1908 he permanently cancelled Jellinek's original contract.
His diplomatic career continued and he was Austro-Hungarian Consulate General in successively Nice (1907), Mexico and Monaco. In 1909 when in Monte Carlo, Jellinek finally severed his commercial activities to concentrate on his consular work but did purchase some casinos in the region.
. While being treated at a sanatorium in Kissingen by Dr. Von Dapper, he ceded the Baden mansion to his family, writing: "(The Baden Villa) disturbs me terribly, I cannot sleep and that is detrimental to my health!.".
When Austro-Hungary entered in war on July 28, 1914, Jellinek and his family stopped speaking French outside their property. Later that year, they moved to Meran (France
) but there, he was accused of espionage for Germany, supposedly hiding saboteurs in his Mediterranean yachts. At the same time, the Austrians suspected his wife Anaise.
Fleeing in 1917, they finished up in Geneva
, in neutral Switzerland, where Emil Jellinek was temporarily arrested again. He stayed there until his death on January 21, 1918, at the age of 64 . All his French properties were later forfeited. In 1982, his remains have rested near Rachel's tomb, in Nice's Catholic Cemetery.
A decade after his death in 1926, amid the German post-war crisis, DMG merged with Benz to become the Daimler-Benz
company with their automobiles called Mercedes-Benz
. Daimler-Benz purchased Chrysler in 1998 and became DaimlerChrysler until August 2007, when Chrysler was sold off to Cerberus Capital Management
. The company is now known as Daimler AG.
His most important properties were:
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"....
and 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...
for the first 'modern' car. Jellinek required naming the engine after his daughter, Mercedes Jellinek
Mércédès Jellinek
Mercédès Adriana Manuela Ramona Jellinek called Mercédès was the daughter of Austrian automobile entrepreneur Emil Jellinek and his wife Rachel Goggmann Cenrobert. She was born on September 16, 1889 and named as a term of endearment Mercedes...
. The Mercedes 35hp model later contributed to the brand name developed in 1926, 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...
, when DMG
DMG
DMG may refer to:*DMG Radio Australia, owner of the Nova and Classic Rock radio networks*.dmg file, the Apple Disk Image file format used in the Mac OS X computer operating system*Daily Mail and General Trust, an international media company...
and Benz & Cie. merged into what is now among the largest car brands in the world. Jellinek lived in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
but later moved to Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
on the French Riviera
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
, where he was the General Consul to Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
.
Early life
Jellinek was born in LeipzigLeipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the son of Dr Adolf Jellinek
Adolf Jellinek
----Adolf Jellinek |Drslavice]], nearby Uherské Hradiště, Moravia - December 28, 1893, Vienna) was an Austrian rabbi and scholar...
(sometimes known also as Aaron Jellinek). His father was a well-known Czech
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...
-Hungarian rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
and intellectual in the Jewish collective around Leipzig and Vienna. Jellinek's mother Rosalie Bettelheim (born 1832 in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, died 1892 in Baden bei Wien
Baden bei Wien
-Points of interest:The town offers several parks and a picturesque surrounding, of which the most frequented is the Helenental valley. Not far from Baden, the valley is crossed by a widespread aqueduct of the Vienna waterworks...
) was an active rebbitzen. He had two brothers, both of whom achieved fame: Max Hermann Jellinek as a linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, and Georg Jellinek
Georg Jellinek
Georg Jellinek was an Austrian public lawyer. Along with Hans Kelsen and the Hungarian Felix Somlo he belonged to the group of Austrian Legal Positivists and was considered to be "the exponent of public law in Austria“.-Early life:From 1867, Jellinek studied law, history of art and philosophy at...
as an international law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
teacher. His sisters were Charlotte and Pauline.
The family moved, shortly after Jellinek's birth, to Vienna. He found paying attention to school work difficult and dropped out of several schools including Sonderhausen. His parents were displeased with his performance, while Jellinek began to indulge in practical jokes. In 1870, when he was 17, his parents found him a job as a clerk in a Moravia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
n railway company, Rot-Koestelec North-Western. Jellinek lasted two years at this company before being sacked when the management discovered that he had been organising train races late at night.
The diplomat and businessman (1872 to 1893)
In 1872, when 19 years old, he moved to FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. There, through his father's connections, Schmidl, the Austro-Hungarian Consul in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, requested his services getting Jellinek diplomatic posts at Tangier
Tangier
Tangier, also Tangiers is a city in northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 . It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel...
and Tetouan
Tétouan
Tetouan is a city in northern Morocco. The Berber name means literally "the eyes" and figuratively "the water springs". Tetouan is one of the two major ports of Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea. It lies a few miles south of the Strait of Gibraltar, and about 40 mi E.S.E. of Tangier...
successively. In Tetouan he met Rachel Goggmann Cenrobert an African born lady of French-Sepharadi descent.
In 1874 he was called up for military service
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
in Vienna but was declared unfit. He resumed his diplomatic career as Austrian vice-consul at Oran
Oran
Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...
, Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
and also began trading Algerian grown tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
to Europe in partnership with Rachel's father.
He also worked as an inspector for the French Aigle insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
company and traveled to Vienna briefly in 1881 at the age of 28 to open one of its branch offices. Returning to Oran, he finally married Rachel, and their first two sons Adolph and Fernand were born there.
Two years later in 1884, Jellinek joined the insurance company full time and moved with the family to Baden bei Wien
Baden bei Wien
-Points of interest:The town offers several parks and a picturesque surrounding, of which the most frequented is the Helenental valley. Not far from Baden, the valley is crossed by a widespread aqueduct of the Vienna waterworks...
, Austria, where they lived in the house of a wine dealer named Hanni. In Baden in 1889 his first daughter, Adrienne Manuela Ramona Jellinek
Mércédès Jellinek
Mercédès Adriana Manuela Ramona Jellinek called Mercédès was the daughter of Austrian automobile entrepreneur Emil Jellinek and his wife Rachel Goggmann Cenrobert. She was born on September 16, 1889 and named as a term of endearment Mercedes...
, was born on September 16, and called Mercédès, the name Mercédès meaning "gifts" or "favors" in Spanish. Rachel died 4 years after the birth of her daughter. Even so, Jellinek came to believe the name Mercedes brought good fortune and called all his properties after it. One of his sons wrote: “He was as superstious as the ancient Romans.”
Jellinek's insurance business and stock-market trading became very successful, and they started to spend the winters in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
on the fashionable French Riviera, eventually moving there and establishing links with both international business people and the local aristocracy.
It was in Nice that Jellinek became enthralled by the automobile, studying any information that he could gather about it and purchasing successively: a De Dion-Bouton
De Dion-Bouton
De Dion-Bouton was a French automobile manufacturer and railcar manufacturer operating from 1883 to 1932. The company was founded by the Marquis Jules-Albert de Dion, Georges Bouton and his brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux....
, a Léon-Bollée Voiturette
Léon Bollée Automobiles
Léon Bollée Automobiles was a French company founded by Léon Bollée in Le Mans to build a first vehicle called "Voiturette".The Bollée family, all car makers, created three brands:* steam vehicles, Amédée Bollée , built between 1873 and 1885....
, both tricycles, and a four-seat Benz motorized-coach.
Helped by his diplomatic career, he became the Austrian Consul General in Nice, Jellinek began selling automobiles, mainly French makes, to European aristocrats spending winter vacations in the region. Associated with the automobile business were Leon Desjoyeaux, from Nice, and C. L. “Charley” Lehmann, from Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He acquired a large mansion which he named Villa Mercedes to run the business from and by 1897 he was selling about 140 cars a year and started calling them Mercedes. The car business was by now more profitable than his insurance work.
Rachel died in 1893 and was buried in Nice. In 1899 he married again to Madelaine Henriette Engler (Anaise Jellinek), and had four more children Alain Didier, Guy, Rene and Andree (Maya).
The DMG (Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft), Daimler and Maybach (1896 to 1900)
Seeing an advertisement for a DMG car in the weekly magazine Fliegende Blätter, Jellinek now aged 43 travelled to Cannstatt, StuttgartStuttgart
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 ....
in 1896 to find out more about the company and its factory and the designers 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"....
. He placed an order for one of the Daimler cars which was delivered in October of that year.
The car was a Phoenix Double-Phaeton with 8 hp engine and capable of reaching 24 km/h (15 mph). Maybach had designed the DMG-Phoenix engine, which featured four cylinders for the first time in a car, in 1894 when staying at Stuttgart's former Hermann Hotel.
DMG seemed a reliable enterprise, so Jellinek decided to start selling its cars. In 1898 he wrote to DMG requesting six more cars and to become a DMG main agent and distributor. In 1899 he sold 10 cars and in 1900 29. As well as French car makers such as Peugeot
Peugeot
Peugeot 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...
and Panhard & Levassor
Panhard
Panhard is currently a French manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its current incarnation was formed by the acquisition of Panhard by Auverland in 2005. Panhard had been under Citroën ownership, then PSA , for 40 years...
and other makers licensed to sell Daimler engined vehicles in France, there was a shortage of cars and Jellinek benefitted by being able to beat other suppliers lengthy waiting times.
Jellinek kept contacting DMG's designers with his ideas, some good but often with harangues such as: "Your manure wagon has just broken down on schedule", "Your car is a cocoon and I want the butterfly" or "Your engineers should be locked up in an insane asylum." This annoyed Daimler but Maybach took notice of many of his suggestions.
Every year in March, the French Riviera
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
celebrated a speed-week, attracting many of the local high-society.
The events included:
- Nice-Castellane 90 km event (long distance race)
- Magagnosc event (touring race)
- Promenade des Anglais (sprint race)
- Nice-La Turbie (hill climb race)
- Monte Carlo (Concours d'elegance)
In 1899 Jellinek entered his cars in all of them. As the usage of pseudonyms was common, he called his race-team Mercedes and this was visibly written on the cars' chassis. Monsieur Mercedes became his personal alias and he became well known by it in the region.
Using the DMG-Phoenix, Jellinek easily won all the races, reaching 35 kilometre per hour, but he was still not satisfied with the car.
The Mercedes 35hp (1900)
Long wheelbase. Wide track. | |
---|---|
Pressed steel chassis. | |
Low center of gravity (lower engine). | |
75 km/h (45 mph). 35 hp (950 rpm). 300 to 1000 rpm (driver controlled). | |
Light high performance engine: 4 cylinders. Bore/stroke ratio: 116x140 mm. Displacement: 5918 cc. Cylinder heads part of the castings. Carburetor for each pair of cylinders. Controlled intake valves. Two camshafts. | |
Low-voltage ignition magneto Magneto (electrical) A magneto is an electrical generator that uses permanent magnets to produce alternating current.Magnetos adapted to produce pulses of high voltage are used in the ignition systems of some gasoline-powered internal combustion engines to provide power to the spark plugs... s. |
|
Aluminium crankcase (pioneer), horizontally divided. | |
Honeycomb radiator. | |
Wheel steering. |
In 1899 DMG commissioned some engineers including Wilhelm Bauer, Wilhelm Werner and Hermann Braun, to investigate the possibility of using the Phoenix for sporting events as at that time car racing was the best way of generating publicity in Europe.
On March 30, 1900 Wilhelm Bauer decided spontaneously to enter the Nice-La Turbie hill climb
Hillclimbing
Hillclimbing is a branch of motorsport in which drivers compete against the clock to complete an uphill course....
but crashed fatally after hitting a rock on the first turn while avoiding spectators. This caused DMG to abandon racing.
Nonetheless, Jellinek came to an agreement with DMG on April 2, 1900 by promising the large sum of 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 Wilhelm Maybach would design a revolutionary sports car for him, to be called the Mercedes, of which 36 units had to be delivered before October 15. The deal also included an order for 36 standard DMG 8 hp cars. Jellinek also became a member of DMG 's Board of Management and obtained the exclusive dealership for the new Mercedes for France, Austria, Hungary, Belgium and United States of America. Jellinek had some legal problems over the use of the Daimler name in France with Panhard Levassor who owned the Daimler licences for France, and the use of the Mercedes name put an end to that problem.
Jellinek laid down a strict specification for the Mercedes 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 them unsuitable for high speeds and at risk of overturning:
- Long wheelbaseWheelbaseIn both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.- Road :In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel and the center of the rear wheel...
and wide track to provide stability. - Engine to be better located on the car's chassis.
- Lower center of gravity.
- Electric ignitionIgnition systemAn ignition system is a system for igniting a fuel-air mixture. Ignition systems are well known in the field of internal combustion engines such as those used in petrol engines used to power the majority of motor vehicles, but they are also used in many other applications such as in oil-fired and...
using the new BoschRobert Bosch GmbHRobert Bosch GmbH is a multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart, Germany. It is the world's largest supplier of automotive components...
system (in lieu of a gas heated glow tube).
The model would be officially called the Daimler-Mercedes which the DMG chairman accepted readily as it overcame the problem of the Daimler name in France being owned by Panhard & Levassor.
Over the next few months, Jellinek oversaw the development of the new car at first by daily telegrams and later by traveling to Stuttgart. He took delivery of the first one on December 22, 1900, at Nice's railway station - it had already been sold to the Baron Henry of Rothschild who had also raced cars in Nice.
In 1901, the car amazed the automobile world. Jellinek again won the Nice races, easily beating his opponents in all the capacity classes and reaching 60 kilometre per hour. The director of the French Automobile Club
French Automobile Club
The Automobile Club of France is a men's club founded on November 12, 1895 by Albert de Dion, Paul Meyan, and its first president, the Dutch-born Baron, Etienne van Zuylen van Nijevelt....
, Paul Meyan, stated: "We have entered the Mercedes era", a sentiment echoed by newspapers worldwide.
The records set by the new Mercedes amazed the entire automobile world. DMG's sales shot up, filling its Stuttgart plant to full capacity and consolidating its future as a car making company. The number of employees steadily increased from 340 in 1900 to 2,200 in 1904. In 1902, on June 23, the company decided to use the Mercedes name as the trademark for its entire automobile production and officially registered it on September 26.
Life after the Mercedes success (1900 to 1914)
As well as shaving off his side-whiskers, the overjoyed Emil Jellinek, in Vienna in June 1903 at the age of 50, changed his name to Jellinek-Mercedes, commenting: "This is probably the first time that a father has taken his daughter's name". From then on, he signed himself E.J. Mercédès.Jellinek and his enthusiastic associates were distributing DMG-Mercedes models worldwide, six hundred were sold by 1909, making millions for DMG. He supplied cars to all 150 members of Nice's Automobile Club and also supported racing teams all over Europe. His life was absorbed by the business, spending much time away from home, and sending many telegrams.
As the 1900s continued, his passion for the Mercedes began to fade. He tired of the special requests being made by his highly demanding aristocratic customers. He also became disillusioned by DMG's technical department which he called "those donkeys" and built his own large repair facilities at Nice behind Villa Mercedes. Wilhelm Maybach, his favorite designer, left DMG in 1907. He also so angered DMG's chairman that in 1908 he permanently cancelled Jellinek's original contract.
His diplomatic career continued and he was Austro-Hungarian Consulate General in successively Nice (1907), Mexico and Monaco. In 1909 when in Monte Carlo, Jellinek finally severed his commercial activities to concentrate on his consular work but did purchase some casinos in the region.
First World War, his last years (1914 to 1918)
Just before war broke out in 1914 the Austrian government charged Jellinek for taxes on his French properties. The family then moved to SemmeringSemmering
For the town of the same name, see Semmering, Austria.Semmering is a mountain pass in the Eastern Northern Limestone Alps connecting Lower Austria and Styria, between which it forms a natural border.-Location:...
. While being treated at a sanatorium in Kissingen by Dr. Von Dapper, he ceded the Baden mansion to his family, writing: "(The Baden Villa) disturbs me terribly, I cannot sleep and that is detrimental to my health!.".
When Austro-Hungary entered in war on July 28, 1914, Jellinek and his family stopped speaking French outside their property. Later that year, they moved to Meran (France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) but there, he was accused of espionage for Germany, supposedly hiding saboteurs in his Mediterranean yachts. At the same time, the Austrians suspected his wife Anaise.
Fleeing in 1917, they finished up in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, in neutral Switzerland, where Emil Jellinek was temporarily arrested again. He stayed there until his death on January 21, 1918, at the age of 64 . All his French properties were later forfeited. In 1982, his remains have rested near Rachel's tomb, in Nice's Catholic Cemetery.
A decade after his death in 1926, amid the German post-war crisis, DMG merged with Benz to become the 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...
company with their automobiles called 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...
. Daimler-Benz purchased Chrysler in 1998 and became DaimlerChrysler until August 2007, when Chrysler was sold off to Cerberus Capital Management
Cerberus Capital Management
Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is one of the largest private equity investment firms in the United States. The firm is based in New York City, and run by -year-old financier Steve Feinberg. Former U.S...
. The company is now known as Daimler AG.
Jellinek's properties
In the Mercedes ' global boom in 1900, Jellinek purchased several properties including:- Mercedes exhibition room in the Champs-Élysées, Paris.
- Grand hotelsHotelA hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
: Royal and Scribe in Nice and the Astoria, in Paris.
His most important properties were:
- The Villa Mercedes in Nice. No. 57, Promenade des AnglaisPromenade des AnglaisThe Promenade des Anglais is a celebrated promenade along the Mediterranean at Nice, France.-History:Before Nice was urbanized, the coast at Nice was just bordered by a deserted band of beach...
. - The Villa Mercedes II in Nice. No. 54, Promenade des Anglais. Bought in 1902.
- Villa Jellinek-Mercedes, Wienerstrasse 39-45, in Baden (next to the original vineyard house). Purchasing it as a building plot in 1891, Jellinek built a large mansion, adding to it progressively from 1909 until it had 50 rooms, 8 bathrooms and 23 toilets. In 1945 the Russian Army destroyed all but the garage and two rooms. Afterwards, the land was divided and sold and is now occupied by a gas station and a smaller building built in 1900.
- Chauteau Robert. An immense house located between ToulonToulonToulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
and Nice. Officially it was Jellinek's private residence, though he spent most of the time in the Villa Mercedes of Nice.
See also
- Daimler Motoren GesellschaftDaimler Motoren GesellschaftDaimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft 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...
- 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...
- 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 35hp
- JellinekJellinekJellinek is a surname and may refer to:* Adolf Jellinek , an Austrian rabbi and scholar.** Max Hermann Jellinek , son of Adolf Jellinek* E...