page_title: Emil Jellinek
section_title: The DMG (Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft), Daimler and Maybach (1896 to 1900)
hierarchical_section_title: Emil Jellinek / The DMG (Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft), Daimler and Maybach (1896 to 1900)
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Emil Jellinek au volant d'une Daimler Phoenix - Libre de droit from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wimbit-Jellinek-Phoenix8hp.jpg English: First Semmering Race on 27 August 1899. Class winner Emil Jellinek in driver's seat of his Daimler 16 hp "Phoenix" racing car, seated next to him is Hermann Braun. Deutsch: Das erste Semmering-Bergrennen am 27. August 1899. Der Gewinner war de:Emil Jellinek auf seinem 24-PS Daimler "Phönix". Neben ihm sitzt Hermann Braun
context_page_description: Emil Jellinek, known after 1903 as Emil Jellinek-Mercedes was a wealthy European automobile entrepreneur with Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, responsible in 1900 for commissioning the first 'modern' car, the Mercedes 35hp. Jellinek created the Mercedes trademark in 1902, naming the cars after his daughter; the trademark developed into the term Mercedes-Benz, and 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 of Austria-Hungary.
context_section_description: Seeing an advertisement for a DMG car in the weekly magazine Fliegende Blätter, Jellinek,  now aged 43, travelled to Cannstatt (near Stuttgart) in 1896 to find out more about the company, its factory, and the designers Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. He placed an order for one of the Daimler cars and took delivery in October of that year.
  The car, a Phoenix Double-Phaeton with 8 hp engine, could reach 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. Among French car-makers such as Peugeot, Panhard & Levassor and other makers licensed to sell Daimler-engined vehicles in France there was a shortage of cars, and Jellinek benefited 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 members 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 km/h (22 mph), but he was still not satisfied with the car.
caption: Emil Jellinek driving his
  Phoenix Double-Phaeton
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