Mercedes-Benz traces its origins to 1886 when Karl Benz patented the world's first true petrol-powered automobile — the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Simultaneously, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach were developing their own high-speed petrol engine and motorised vehicles. The two companies merged in 1926 to form Daimler-Benz, adopting the Mercedes name — coined by Austro-Hungarian businessman Emil Jellinek who named a racing car after his daughter. The three-pointed star symbolises Daimler's ambition to motorise land, sea and air.
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