The History of the Mercedes-Benz brand and the Three-Pointed Star

A company's brand name and trademark are symbolic. They embrace everything - the products, the services and the company itself. It is the customers' and the public's first point of reference. Its origins and history are therefore every bit as revealing and interesting as its current status on the market.

Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz were two great engineers and company founders who never actually met. In the beginning of the eighteen eighties they built the world's first lightweight high speed engine and the first motor vehicles, thus laying the foundations for motorised transport. Both men founded their own companies individually, Benz in 1883 and Daimler in 1890, however as demand grew both at home and abroad, they gradually expanded their sales network to match.

Each company needed a memorable trademark to publicise their products. Initially the name of the inventors themselves, 'Benz' and 'Daimler', vouched for the origin and quality of the engines and vehicles. But while Benz & Cie in Mannheim kept the original name in their trademark, a completely new and unusual brand name, "Mercedes", was brought out just after the turn of the century for the products of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in Cannstatt