Emil Jellinek, known after 1903 as Emil Jellinek-Mercedes was a Jewish automobile entrepreneur of the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, responsible in 1900 for commissioning the first modern automobile, the Mercedes 35hp.
25 Facts About Emil Jellinek
2.
Emil Jellinek lived in Vienna, Austria, then later moved to Nice, on the French Riviera, where he was General Consul of Austria-Hungary.
3.
Emil Jellinek was born in Leipzig, Germany, the son of Dr Adolf Emil Jellinek.
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Emil Jellinek's father was a well-known Czech-Hungarian rabbi and intellectual in the Jewish collective around Leipzig and Vienna.
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Emil Jellinek had two brothers, both of whom achieved fame: Max Hermann Jellinek, as a linguist, and Georg Jellinek, as an international law teacher.
6.
Emil Jellinek found paying attention to school work difficult and dropped out of several schools, including Sonderhausen.
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Emil Jellinek's parents were displeased with his performance, while Jellinek began to indulge in practical jokes.
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Emil Jellinek worked two years before being fired by management, upon discovery that he had been organising train races late at night.
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In 1874, Emil Jellinek was conscripted for military service in Vienna, but was declared unfit.
10.
Emil Jellinek resumed his diplomatic career as Austrian vice-consul at Oran, Algeria, and began trading Algerian tobacco to Europeans, in partnership with Rachel's father.
11.
Emil Jellinek worked as an inspector for the French Aigle insurance company and traveled to Vienna briefly in 1881 at the age of 28 to open one of its branch offices.
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Two years later, in 1884, Emil Jellinek joined the insurance company full-time and moved with the family to Baden bei Wien, Austria, where they lived in the house of a wine dealer named Hanni.
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Emil Jellinek acquired a large mansion which he named Villa Mercedes to run the business from and by 1897 he was selling about 140 cars a year and started calling them "Mercedes".
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DMG seemed a reliable enterprise, so Emil Jellinek decided to start selling its cars.
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Nonetheless, Emil Jellinek came to an agreement with DMG on April 2,1900, by promising the large sum of 550,000 Goldmark if Wilhelm Maybach would design a revolutionary sports car for him, to be called the Mercedes great right, of which 36 units had to be delivered before October 15.
16.
Emil Jellinek became a member of DMG's Board of Management and obtained the exclusive dealership for the new Mercedes for France, Austria, Hungary, Belgium and United States of America.
17.
Emil Jellinek had some legal problems over the use of the Daimler name in France with Panhard Levassor who owned the Daimler licences for France, and the use of the Mercedes name put an end to that problem.
18.
Apparently Emil Jellinek laid down a strict specification for the Mercedes stating "I don't want a car for today or tomorrow, it will be the car of the day after tomorrow".
19.
Emil Jellinek itemized many new parameters to overcome the problems found in many of the ill-designed "horseless carriages" of the time which made them unsuitable for high speeds and at risk of overturning:.
20.
Emil Jellinek supplied cars to all 150 members of Nice's Automobile Club and supported racing teams all over Europe.
21.
Emil Jellinek's life was absorbed by the business, spending much time away from home, and sending many telegrams.
22.
Emil Jellinek became disillusioned by DMG's technical department which he called "those donkeys" and built his own large repair facilities at Nice behind Villa Mercedes.
23.
Emil Jellinek so angered DMG's chairman that in 1908 he permanently cancelled Jellinek's original contract.
24.
In 1909 when in Monte Carlo, Emil Jellinek finally severed his commercial activities to concentrate on his consular work but did purchase some casinos in the region.
25.
Emil Jellinek stayed there until his death on January 21,1918, at the age of 64.