Mercedes – love that has pierced the centuries
Surely some of the participants or guests of the site "Military Review", having read the title of the article, will think: "We've come to such a low point that they've already started writing about love." Others, who have recently read my previous works about "Mercedes" and Gottlieb Daimler, will say: "Well, here we go again. Such things are happening in the country and around it today, and he's writing about his Germans again." But I ask you not to rush and "not to act rashly." Invest a few minutes of your time for another immersion in history. Our common history, regardless of citizenship, nationality and country of residence.
So, almost like in a fairy tale, once upon a time, from 1853 to 1918, in a distant land there lived a good fellow, or rather, Herr Emil Jellinek. He was born in Leipzig, like all children, he went to school, but despite the fact that his father had an academic degree, his mother was very educated and well-read, and both his brothers were professors, school was, as they would say now, "a piece of cake" for him, the young man studied reluctantly and poorly. He changed schools several times, so there was no point in continuing his education, and at seventeen Emil had already started working, and at nineteen he left for France.
And then his father came to the rescue. Thanks to his connections, the Austrian consul took the boy to Morocco, where he unexpectedly found himself in diplomatic service, in the cities of Tangier and Tetouan. And it turned out that Jellinek was simply made for such work.
Emil Jellinek (06.04.1853-21.01.1918) in official uniform. He really is a handsome man!
Almost like V.S. Vysotsky: “He lies wrapped in medals,” although at that time this tinsel was obligatory for officials of such rank.
Then there was Algeria, work as a vice-consul, and at the same time a successful tobacco business, a successful marriage, the birth of two sons, as well as very successful cooperation with a French insurance company, for which he opened an Austrian representative office in Baden bei Wien in 1884.
Jellinek moved his family there, he later built a pompous villa, which in 1889, after the birth of his daughter, named Mercédès Adrienne Ramona Manuela, he gave his own name "Mercedes". And it is not surprising, because he loved the girl simply to the point of madness and simply idolized her...
This is probably the most famous photograph of Mercédès Adrienne Ramona Manuela Jellinek (16.09.1889 – 23.02.1929)
And since Herr Jellinek was a very emotional, passionate and literally "energetic" person and entrepreneur by nature, he invested not only his time, life experience and, of course, money, but also his soul and love in everything he lived and did. This was probably one of the reasons for his success as a businessman.
Well, since the highest manifestation of his feelings was love for his daughter, whom he simply idolized, then everything that he liked, that was important to him, he called by her name.
Emil Jellinek with his daughter and the love of his life, Mercedes.
His insurance and stock business flourished, but unfortunately, when Mercédès was only four years old, her mother, Jellinek's wife, died. The family then began spending winters on the French Riviera (Côte d'Azur), and later moved to Nice, where Jellinek quickly became friends with the local nobility and the international business world.
And then another passionate love overtook him, a love for cars.
From today's perspective, it is quite difficult to call the then "self-propelled carriages" a car, but Jellinek fell passionately in love with this miracle of technical progress of the late 19th century.
Emil Jellinek's first vehicle was a three-wheeled motorcycle, the De Dion-Bouton. This machine cost between 1000 and 1500 gold marks (today about 10 euros), but was the fastest personal means of transportation and reached a respectable speed of 000 km/h for that time.
Three-wheeled motorcycle De Dion-Bouton
It was followed by the Léon-Bollée voiturette tricycle.
Leon Bolle himself and his wife on a Tricycle 3 CV (photo from 1897).
This marvel of French engineering developed a speed of up to 46 km/h. And since the passenger sat in the front seat in front of the driver, the cheerful and witty French called this device "Mother-in-law's Killer".
Jellinek became a passionate fan of the most modern cars of the time, firmly convinced that they were the future.
In 1896, when Jellinek was already 43 years old, he accidentally saw an advertisement for Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in the Fliegende Blätter newspaper and immediately went to Cannstatt, Germany, to meet Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach.
The visit was very successful, and he ordered his first two-cylinder Daimler car with 6 hp and a top speed of 24 km/h, which was the beginning of a further, very fruitful cooperation for both parties. Then, in 1898, Jellinek bought two four-cylinder Daimler-Phoenix with 8 hp and a top speed of 40 km/h.
Emil Jellinek driving a Daimler-Phoenix
Passionate about the development of the automobile industry, he organizes the so-called "Speed Week" in Nice every March, which attracts many representatives of local high society, and he himself regularly and very successfully participates in these races.
In his early days as a racing driver, he went by the pseudonym "Monsieur Mercedes". He also called his family, his company, both his estates, his yacht "Mercédès-Mercédès", and of course his beloved legendary sports cars.
His pseudonym "Mercédès" was on the lips of Nice high society at the time!
And Jellinek does not miss his chance. In 1898, he opens a DMG representative office in Nice. The following year, 1899, he sells ten Daimler cars, and in 1900 – already twenty-nine!
At that time, it was equivalent to selling today's airliners, and maybe even spaceships. That's what it means to be friends with the richest people in Europe and America!
In 1899, Jellinek, driving a 24-horsepower Daimler car under the pseudonym Mercédès, won another car race on the Côte d'Azur.
Mercédès Jellinek around 1901, when regular deliveries of Daimler cars bearing her name began.
Businessman Emil Jellinek simply “felt in his gut” what a resonant brand name meant.
On April 2, 1900, he and Wilhelm Maybach (successor to the recently deceased Gottlieb Daimler) signed an agreement to develop a new engine to be called the "Daimler-Mercedes", and then a contract with DMG for special rights as the firm's official representative.
Jellinek himself received a seat on the supervisory board of DMG, where he served until 1909.
Just 14 days later, Jellinek orders 36 cars from DMG at once, worth a total of 550 gold marks, an unusually large order by the standards of the time. Today, that would be equivalent to around 000 euros. A few weeks later, he orders another 4 cars, all with 640 hp engines.
Jellinek literally went for broke, and the name "Mercedes", which Jellinek had been using as a pseudonym for several years, became the specific name of the product.
He was very well known among the elite living in this region, he himself was far from poor, and by naming himself and his already legendary Daimler car after his daughter, he simply created a sensation among this public, and at the same time made the kind of publicity one could only dream of.
As a result, Emil Jellinek subsequently became the largest Daimler dealer in the world. His sales volume reached 60% of the total number of Mercedes cars sold.
Here it is, the very same Daimler that became the first Mercedes.
On 22 December 1900, DMG delivered to Nice the first racing car with 35 hp, equipped with a new engine with an aluminum cylinder block, a total displacement of four cylinders of 5,9 liters, a honeycomb radiator and unusually stable handling for that time.
In 1900, Jellinek's team drivers Hermann Braun and Wilhelm Bauer entered the Nice Speed Week under the pseudonyms Mercedes I and Mercedes II. Unfortunately, Wilhelm Bauer crashed at these races on March 30, 1900 and died the following day. It would seem that this is possible with an average speed of about 35 km/h...
Paul Meilhan, founding member and secretary general of the Automobile Club de France (ACF), said at the time: “We have entered the era of Mercédès.”
One of the first Mercedes on the same race track 120 years later
In March 1901, in the next race, Mercedes was unbeatable in almost all disciplines, and this again served as the best advertisement for Daimler cars, which bore their own maiden name.
Even today this Daimler looks great!
On June 23, 1902, Emil Jellinek officially and legally registered and protected the Mercedes trademark (no accent) and signed a "contract for commercial exclusivity" as a supplier of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) automobiles to Austria-Hungary, France, Belgium and the United States, and then ordered several hundred different models for this purpose.
At the same time, he officially changed his name to "Emil Jellinek-Mercedes". "This is probably the first time a father has taken his daughter's surname," he commented on the event.
Emil Jellinek died in early 1918 and was buried in Nice. It is not known how his relationship with his daughter developed, but thanks to the brilliant idea of embodying her name in a Daimler product, Jellinek himself became very rich, although later the First World War significantly reduced his fortune.
In 1926, DMG merged with Benz & Cie. and became Daimler-Benz AG, a concern known throughout the world today.
A poster dedicated to the historic merger of the two companies, an event that marked the beginning of the era of the Mercedes brand, on land, sea and in the air, exactly what Gottlieb Daimler dreamed of.
Times have changed, logos have changed, but the name remains to this day.
Mercedes (1902), Mercedes (1916), Mercedes-Benz (1926)
And what happened to Mercédès Jellinek herself?
For decades, almost nothing was known about her life. Even the manufacturer of cars bearing the Mercedes name had almost no information about Emil Jellinek's daughter.
And so, in the early 2000s, a suitcase with documents, passports and three photo albums with almost 300 photographs was found in an old closet in the attic of the Jellinek estate. All of this had been there for many decades. In 2009, the Daimler concern was able to acquire the originals of this find and include them in the company archive.
Documents found from the archive of Emil Jellinek's daughter, Mercedes Jellinek
Bottom left is Mercedes Jellinek's birth certificate, top right is her father, Emil Jellinek, lavishly decorated with medals and orders.
Before this discovery, there were rumors that the girl was called Mercédès only at home, and the story with this name itself was invented by Emil Jellinek, again, for advertising. But no, after the discovery of the girl's birth certificate, it became clear that she really was named Mercédès Adrienne Ramona Manuela, born on September 16, 1889.
Mercédès birth certificate. The document is 136 years old...
It turns out she had green eyes, as stated in her passport.
The girl grew up, matured and was very much loved by her father. It is unknown whether she received any education after school.
The only photograph of Mercédès driving a Mercedes was taken at the Grand Prix Wagen on June 19, 1906, when she was 17 years old. Remarkably, she had no interest in cars at all, had never owned a car of her own and did not know how to drive.
At the age of twenty, Mercédès Jellinek married Freiherr Carl von Schlosser from Vienna, with whom she had two children. Her half-sister Andrée Maja Jellinek, 17 years younger, recalls:
"Mercédès was a very kind, sympathetic and at the same time radical person, and we understood each other perfectly. She clearly had a talent for the theatre and could have become an actress."
But she didn't become an actress.
A photograph of the newlywed family taken in 1909. Riding with friends: Mercédès sits in the far left corner, her husband Karl von Schlosser next to the driver.
Apparently, this “radical decision” later turned out to be a divorce from Karl von Schlosser, with whom they lived for 17 years.
In 1926, Mercédès married the Viennese sculptor Rudolf von Weigl and took his surname. The second marriage ended abruptly; a few months later, her husband died of tuberculosis.
Mercédès captioned her last photograph: "Mercédès Weigl", after the surname of her second husband.
Mercedes von Weigl herself died six years after her husband's death from bone cancer in 1929. She was only 39 years old. Her obituary stated: "After long suffering, in her 40th year, she has humbly reposed."
Notice of Mercédès's death. Although it was only in 1903, when Mercédès was already 14 years old, that her father Emile officially changed his surname to "Jellinek-Mercedes" and renamed his daughter Mercedes Jellinek-Mercedes, the obituary states "née Jellinek-Mercedes".
Mercédès was buried in Vienna's Central Cemetery in the family grave.
But you can still “meet” Mercédès today, and it’s not just the cars that bear its name.
In Austria, in the city of Baden near Vienna, there is a spa park that opened back in 1903. The park has an unusually beautiful fountain named after the goddess of water or the spirit of water, Undine.
The Austrian sculptor Josef Valentin Kassin created this fountain from limestone and marble in 1902–1903. It was he who asked the young Mercédès to pose for him as the future main figure of the fountain complex.
Since then, for the second century, the goddess Undine with the face of Mercédès has been looking at visitors to the park.
This fountain is now called the "Mercedes" of fountains.
That's the whole story of the "good fellow" Emil Jellinek and his boundless love for his daughter, the girl Mercédès, a love that gave the name for centuries to the legend of world automobile manufacturing and the world-famous technical product under the proud and no longer girlish name "Mercedes".
Information