How A Poor Boy Created Mercedes-Benz

The Mercedes-Benz car company is one of the oldest and most luxurious in the world. It started with a humble engineer who faced many doubts and failures. Despite this, he proved people wrong and turned his small venture into a world-renowned production car company during the late 19th century. However, the story of Mercedes-Benz took an unexpectedly dark turn when they profited from supplying military vehicles to the Nazis under the work of forced laborers. So sit back and relax. Today we'll be covering the insane story of Mercedes-Benz and the man who brought automobiles to life, Carl Benz.

Carl partnered with a mechanic named August and together they began operating an iron Foundry and mechanical Workshop in Mannheim. However, his business partner turned out to be unreliable and after their tools were impounded by local authorities their company struggled immensely during its first year.Luckily, Carl met a woman around this time, Bertha Ringer, who would go on to become his wife. Together, they were able to turn the situation around and keep the business afloat during the next 10 years. While Carl was able to show his true genius making major developments and breakthroughs in his side experiments during this period, most notably developing a gasoline two-stroke engine, his business wasn't going as well as he had hoped. However, by associating with other businesses he was able to increase production costs slightly and earn a few extra dollars.

Carl's biggest supporter was his wife who would often stay with him in the workshop offering him new suggestions, but even after adding improvements, people still couldn't see Carl's vision%. The few people who bought the cars were only able to use them for short distances and needed mechanics to be with them at all times. They were also very expensive, leaving them only accessible to the rich.

one morning in the summer of 1888 Bertha

Benz got up very early while Carl was

still in bed and hopped into her

husband's car to embark on one of the

most important Journeys in automobile

history she brought along her two sons

and set out to visit her mother in

forceheim which was 66 miles away from

monheim Bertha didn't inform her husband

nor the police about her plans most

likely because if they knew they

wouldn't let her go at the time no car

or motorized carriage had ever

previously attempted a journey that long

but she was determined to prove the

importance of benz's invention however

her trip was no walk in the park Bertha

encountered many problems along the way

like Crossing Dusty and Stony roads that

were made for horses having to stop by a

pharmacy to get more gas and even having

to perform a few mechanical repairs the

66-mile trip took Bertha and her two

sons over 12 hours but eventually they

all made it safely to forzheim more than

anything the trip achieved the goal

Bertha had set out to achieve to make

people notice that the automobile was

the next big thing with this the Ben's

motorwagen became the Talk of the Town

and received great publicity for Carl's

business soon enough Benz and sea began

to expand quickly so much so that by

1890 it had become the second largest

engine manufacturer in Germany though

not by selling their cars but rather

their stationary gasoline engines but

with the addition of two new business

partners Friedrich Von Fisher and Julius

guns they would soon help to turn this

around a as they took care of the

business and marketing side of things

Benz could focus more on his engineering

goals and was able to patent several new

car Innovations such as the planetary

Gear transmission the double pivot

steering and the flat engine with a

boxer configuration he also designed and

manufactured a new and improved

automobile at the recommendation of his

business partners which hit the market

in 1893 he called it the Benz Victoria

this was a more luxurious two-passenger

vehicle that came with a three

horsepower engine capable of reaching 11

miles per hour thanks to its reliability

the vehicle sold fairly well but it was

its follow-up design the cheaper Benz

Velo that really took off with a total

production sum of about 1200 units the

Benz Velo became the world's first

large-scale production car in history

making Benson C the largest automobile

company in the world during the 1890s

and early 1900s however while the Benz

company was enjoying its Newfound

success it was also feeling a lot of

pressure from another company that was

stationed not too far away Daimler

motoring casell shaft

ER motor and gaselsoft was headed by

Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach

both were brilliant Engineers but

Gottlieb Daimler in particular was known

for being very competitive and had a lot

of connections and knowledge of how to

run a business knowledge that Carl Benz

seemed to lack the first Daimler car to

be sold commercially appeared in 1892

two years later they followed up with a

two-cylinder car and in 1897 they

introduced their first front engine

model the Daimler Phoenix it was clear

that the Daimler company was catching up

to Benz as their vehicles looked more

appealing and comfortable for the public

Mr Daimler unfortunately passed away in

1900 leaving Maybach in charge of the

company but it was under maybach's

control that he designed his crowning

achievement the Mercedes 35 horsepower

in 1901 what makes this vehicle so

special is that it was the first

automobile to assemble our modern idea

of a car it was equipped with a powerful

gas engine the body was wider and larger

with a tailored steel chassis and its

Center Mass was near the ground

initially built for racing this vehicle

was made at the request of a wealthy

businessman Emil jelinek who decided to

name the car after his daughter Mercedes

this car would go on to win multiple

street races and Hill Climb events going

at a top speed of 56 miles per hour

Superior to any other vehicle of its day

this drew a lot of attention to the

Daimler company who decided to Rebrand

all their vehicles to Mercedes and began

producing new models for racing and

public use under the same name on the

flip side however this new trend didn't

sit well for Carl benz's Partners who

wanted an immediate response to counter

their competition they brought in some

French designers to help with a new

faster model without the approval of

Carl Benz was angry and upset with their

decision he never liked the idea of auto

racing and always preferred to Drive

slowly and carefully he was horrified by

the noise and danger of someone driving

at high speeds on public roads the car

built by his team was not a success

either and this became damaging for the

Ben's company which suffered further

crises between 1903 and 1904 angry and

disappointed Carl decided to leave his

company while still remaining on its

board of directors in the end he agreed

to allow his cars to race and it ended

up being these racing successes that

eventually rescued his company by 1908

Benz had a 120 horsepower racer a

monster that roared from Leningrad to

Moscow in eight and a half hours with an

average speed of 50 miles per hour which

was an incredible feat considering how

primitive the tracks were at the time

but it was the 200 horsepower Blitz and

bends that would ultimately put the

brand in the spotlight built in 1909

this race car would break the absolute

speed record made by any plane train or

automobile of that time reaching speeds

of over 140 miles per hour in 1911. this

place bends alongside Daimler as one of

the most desired cars at the time and

both companies enjoyed good sales in the

years to follow however this success was

short-lived as the first world war broke

out shaking up everybody's lives as well

as the global economy following the

defeat of Germany in World War One the

country went through an economic

recession and both companies Daimler and

Benz ended up struggling immensely

to strengthen their possibilities of

survival the two companies put their

rivalry aside and signed an agreement in

1924 in which they agreed to combine

their production and marketing efforts

while still retaining their individual

names in order to save costs but this

agreement only lasted for two short

years as the German economy got worse

and the two companies were forced to

merge completely in 1926 creating a new

Enterprise called Daimler Benz under

Daimler Benz the company rebranded their

vehicles as Mercedes-Benz and released

several impressive models during the

late 1920s such as the Mercedes-Benz

type 630 and models SS and ssk one of

their best and brightest Engineers who

helped develop these vehicles was

Ferdinand Porsche whose name would later

become quite famous in the car industry

as for Carl he remained on the Daimler

Ben's board of directors and was able to

see the success of his Automobiles and

Marvel at just how far the Auto industry

had come in his lifetime Carl Benz

passed away just a few short years after

the company's merger in April 1929 at

the age of 84. after his death the

company continued to grow in size and

strength becoming one of the best

performance car makers in the world but

it enjoyed some of its best years under

the unlikely leadership

heuristicates

when Hitler Rose to power in Germany in

1933 he wanted to Showcase German

engineering and Technology to the world

hoping to elevate his political

standpoint above those of his

contemporaries one way he decided to

impress the world was by exhibiting

German cars in international Motorsports

almost immediately he provided a big

subsidy to Daimler Benz to get involved

in Grand Prix races no other car company

of that era would spend as much time and

money building cars as fast as Daimler

Benz did and that fact became evident on

the racetrack from 1934 to 1939 Mercedes

dominated Grand Prix races driving as

fast as 200 miles per hour with their

w25 and w125 models however they were

also challenged by a new rival Auto

Union another German automaker sponsored

by their own Country Auto Union would

also go on to have its fair share of

success during the same period 25 races

from 1935 to 1937. these successes put

Germany on top of the world with

Motorsports events especially

Mercedes-Benz which even became Hitler's

preferred car brand in fact one of the

automobiles he was frequently seen in

was the Mercedes-Benz 770 a large luxury

vehicle mainly used by high-ranking Nazi

politicians and other axis officials

however with the outbreak of the second

world war in 1939 the daimler-benz

company would soon find themselves in

serious Jeopardy as the demand for

civilian passenger cars became scarce

they began manufacturing military

vehicles submarines tanks and aircraft

engines for the Nazi military their

biggest line of business were military

trucks capable of transporting three to

six and a half tons of supplies by 1942

they stopped producing public cars

altogether as all their resources were

directed toward the war effort and as

the war escalated new staff were needed

to handle the increased Armament

production since the entire Workforce

were now fighting on the front lines

Daimler Benz started recruiting women in

order to keep up with their required

unit volumes however this still wasn't

enough to meet the demand so the company

resorted to using forced labor these

prisoners of War abducted civilians and

detainees from concentration camps were

housed close to the plants and forced to

work long hours under immense pressure

from the Germans most of these workers

were from Eastern Europe who were

interned in Barrack camps with poor

prison-like environments while

concentration camp detainees were

monitored by the SS and their inhumane

living conditions many people died in

these camps either from severe

malnutrition mistreatment or even

torture and by 1944 almost half of all

Daimler Ben's 63 000 employees were

forced laborers when the war ended in

1945 The company took a big hit because

of the Potsdam agreement all German

assets abroad were confiscated and used

for payment of reparations

this led to Daimler Benz losing all of

its foreign subsidiaries Affiliates and

branches and they were stripped back to

their own plants in their home country

in other words they had to start all

over and build themselves back up again

Daimler bent was then restructured and

had to denoxify their top management

because of these drastic changes the

company was able to obtain a production

permit from the American occupation

authorities in 1946 although their

factories suffered severe bomb damage

Mercedes-Benz still had the advantage of

owning its own plant as many other

competitors such as BMW or Adler lost

their sights when they ended up in

Soviet territory

the Mercedes-Benz company then focused

their efforts on producing ambulances

police patrol vehicles and delivery Vans

based around their 170v models and used

one of their plants as a repair facility

for U.S military transports by 1947 they

were back to producing passenger

vehicles with only 1045 of their 170v

models being produced that entire year

but even under these less than ideal

conditions Daimler Benz still managed to

turn a profit just one year later by the

1950s Mercedes-Benz was able to regain

much of its influence making a strong

comeback in Motorsports events as well

as achieving successful sales worldwide

so much so that by 1954 the company had

already profited over a billion dollars

over the years Mercedes has completely

shifted their image and has become one

of the most valuable car brands in the

world however none of that would have

been possible without Carl Benz who and

spite of his humble background

challenges and critics had the courage

and determination to turn his dream into

a reality