125 Years of Daimler Part 1

The earliest days

Who was the car’s inventor? In Stuttgart, in south-western Germany, the answer is unanimous: The automobile was born in 1886, otherwise one would not be making such a fuss 125 years later. There were, of course, many who were working on an alternative to the horse-drawn carriage although their contributions tend to be overlooked. It was in 1769, for instance, that Nicholas Cugnot drove a steam-powered vehicle over French cobblestones. It must be noted, however, that on one demonstration run the puffing colossus smashed into a wall, which tended to obscure the technological advance it represented and ruled out subsequent series production.

The early days in the state of Swabia were very productive. In 1885, on the 29th of August, Gottlieb Daimler was granted a patent for a bizarre two-wheeled motorcycle, with small outrigger wheels.

The ‘Reitwagen‘

But the early days in the state of Swabia were less dramatic and more productive. In 1885, on the 29th of August, Gottlieb Daimler was granted a patent for a bizarre two-wheeled motorcycle, with small outrigger wheels and it was Daimler himself who first rode his machine, his ‘Reitwagen’, in front of his workshop in Bad Canstatt. This wooden apparatus could not begin to rival equine performance, having a mere 0.5 horsepower.

In 1886 Carl Benz astonished pedestrians, used to making way for horse-drawn vehicles, with his patented motorized contrivance.

The patented automobile

A year later, two-plus-two wheels became three and this marked a real step forward in the direction of something recognizable as an automobile. In 1886 Carl Benz astonished pedestrians, used to making way for horse-drawn vehicles, with his patented contrivance, powered by petroleum. But it was even then true that behind every successful man there was a resolute woman: It was Bertha Benz, together with her sons Eugen and Richard who made the first long distance drive in an automobile from Mannheim to Pforzheim in 1888. This had a welcome public relations effect at just the right time, for sales of the patented automobile had not been good. But the French took to the three-wheeler and across the frontier its popularity set the stage for what was to come.

But behind every successful man there was a resolute woman: It was Bertha Benz, together with her sons Eugen and Richard who made the first long distance drive in an automobile from Mannheim to Pforzheim in 1888.

Benz, Daimler and Maybach

It must seem incredible that Carl Benz (1844 to 1929) and Gottlieb Daimler (1834 to 1900) never actually met in person. Records do show that on two occasions they were in the same place at the same time but there is no confirmation that any conversation between them took place. But nevertheless both, independent of each other, were to have enormous influence on the development of the automobile. The first true Mercedes was the Simplex Racer built by Daimler’s head engineer Wilhelm Maybach in 1900.

Who was the car’s inventor? In Stuttgart, in south-western Germany, the answer is unanimous: The automobile was born in 1886.

The star conquers the highway

The Mercedes trade name was registered only in 1902. The star surrounded by a laurel wreath has two fathers: The three-pointed emblem was that of the Daimler Motor Company, the laurel wreath came from the firm Benz and Company in 1909. These were only combined as the ‘good star on all roads’ as the firm’s logo in 1929 when the two car makers, Daimler Motors and Benz and Company were forced to merge by their bankers at the time of the great depression, becoming Daimler-Benz Incorporated.

Dreams on wheels

Soon the three-pointed star came to stand for cars which were nothing less than breathtaking. There was the SSK roadster with up to 225 turbo boosted horsepower. And the Silver Arrow racers which dueled with the rivals made by Auto Union throughout the thirties. Much less remembered are the cars with which Daimler-Benz tried to conquer the mass market. Although it was the Beetle which gave Volkswagen its place in the history books after the Second World War, Mercedes had been working much earlier on low-priced ‘bread-and-butter’ models. The rear-engined 130 and 170H models remained, however, exceptions in the Mercedes pre-war portfolio of luxury automobiles.

The fifties were marked by the Type W120 (the ‘Ponton’ Mercedes) with unitary construction.

The return of luxury motoring

After the war during which Mercedes produced motors and vehicles for military deployment, the marque had to start again almost from the very beginning. The first cars produced were the pre-war models and it was only with the 220 and 300 models that Mercedes made tentative return to the upper segment of automobiles. The fifties were marked by the Type W120 (the ‘Ponton’ Mercedes) with unitary construction which was followed in the sixties by the more edgy W110 model (with rudimentary tail-fins).

The dream car of the fifties, the decade known as the German ‘economic miracle‘, was undoubtedly the 300 SL, launched in 1954.

A winged legend

The dream car of the fifties, the decade known as the German ‘economic miracle‘, was undoubtedly the 300 SL. The elegant auto with the revolutionary gull-wing doors was launched in 1964 with a petrol-injection six cylinder motor. It was a light weight vehicle and with 215 horsepower it was seen in its day as a super sports car. The gull-wing came straight from the race track to the Autobahn: already in 1952 Karl Kling and Hans Klenk had piloted a 300 SL to triumph in the perilous Carrera Panamericana event, a marathon 3,110 kilometre test of man and machine. Not even the famous vulture which smashed the windscreen when they were speeding through Mexico at over 200 kilometres ands hour, could rob them of their victory. However this sporting success was overshadowed by the catastrophic Mercedes accident at Le Mans in 1955 which cost eighty lives.

In the second part of the Daimler story read how Mercedes developed the models which established their unparalleled reputation, how the so-called ‘elk test’ threatened the image of the marque, how the attempt to seduce American buyers with diesel models failed and what the future holds for mobility in the sign of the three-pointed star.