If you’re like me, your mind occasionally wonders about some very odd things. How did somebody create the first video game? Why do we park in a driveway and drive on a parkway? Where did the German automaker get the name “Mercedes”?
As for the first two questions, I have no idea. But I can answer that last question for you right now.
Mercedes was the nickname of a young Austrian girl born in 1889. Her real name was Adriana Manuela Ramona Jellinek, and she was the daughter of automobile entrepreneur Emil Jellinek and Rachel Goggman Cenrobert. She lived her entire life in Vienna and married twice throughout her lifetime. According to Wikipedia.com, both marriages were scandalous. Unfortunately, she died of tuberculosis before the age of 40, never sharing her father’s passion for the automobile industry that now immortalizes her name.
In 1901, the Daimler Company named an entire line of vehicles after her when Jellinek commissioned a vehicle to be built. The Mercedes 35 hp was the first to have the name Mercedes bestowed upon it. It was the design brainchild of Wilhelm Maybach, an engine designer and developer of the first internal combustion engines used on the world’s first motorboat and motorcycle. This particular vehicle was created for racing, but it was also suitable for everyday road use as well.
Emil Jellinek didn’t stop at naming cars after his daughter, though. He also named his mansions and car racing team after her. To him, it was a way to commemorate his wife’s Sephardi Jewish background.
Sometimes, knowing the background of a product gives you a new appreciation for it. With Mercedes, it started with just one lonely vehicle and one loving father at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, though, you can find thousands of cars on the road with the Mercedes-Benz trademark. You can expect the same quality from the brand that made it a household name more than a century ago.
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