Crisler Corporation. Senior thesis

Germany, Benz is a history figure and often there are signs at Mercedes dealerships, which say, “Father Benz."

During World War II both companies, Benz & Cie and Daimler-Mototern-

Gesellschaft, were ordered to change their production lines for military purposes. Both companies stopped making cars and began the production of

Benz & Cie aircraft engines. DMG was building the aircraft. 1916 was a dramatic increase the number of employees in Benz and DMG factories. The number of workers of the Benz factories increased from 7700 to 12,000 and

DMG’s workers increased from 3750 to 16,000. When the war was over, thins became very difficult for the German car builders. Many car-building companies had stopped production and had to close down their factories.

Both Benz and DMG were greatly affected by the war and by 1924, the presidents of both companies signed a merger agreement, “Agreement of

Mutual Interest,” which made them into one company.

During this time, the Mercedes model became very famous and recognizable around the world. Due to the increased popularity of the model Mercedes, the new company was named Mercedes-Benz. The name Daimler-

Benz was used also. For the next decade, the Mercedes-Benz dominated the

German automobile market. Mercedes sales were much higher than the other

German car companies, such as BMW and Opel.

In the early 1930’s history repeated itself with the rise of Adolph

Hitler. The management of Mercedes-Benz began gradually to lose control of the company. The new government brought the vehicle under strict regulation. The whole German car industry was taken over by the National

Socialists. Hitler announced that the production of German cars would be

“drastically reduced” (Kimer, p. 276, 1986). In the mid 30’s the Mercedes-

Benz factories were beginning to be used for military purposes. This idea was given by Jakob Werlen, the former manager of Mercedes–Benz, who later became Hitler’s personal advisor of transportation. An interesting fact is that Hitler had many kinds of cars, but whenever he was photographed in a vehicle, it was a Mercedes. One of Hitler’s favorite models was his parade car, type 770, the “Grosser Mercedes” (Kimer, p. 282, 1986).

Wilhelm Kissel was a general director of the company in the mid and late 30’s. He tried to keep his company free from government involvement, but this proved to be too difficult. By wartime, the Mercedes-Benz factories were basically making military products. By the time Hitler started the war with the U.S.S.R., Mercedes-Benz was making all kinds of army equipment. The German army needed the best machines and Mercedes-Benz factories were producing planes, trucks, tanks, and various kinds of engines. The most famous Mercedes war product was a military plane called

Msserschmitt. This plane made the Luftwaffe the best airforce in the world. The Msserschmitt was considered the best plane at that time; it had a Mercedes DB 600 engine, which made this plane much faster than any other planes in the world (Kimer, p. 283, 1986).

In 1945, after the end of the war, all of the Daimler-Benz factories, much like the rest of Germany, were ruined. An American reporter wrote about what he had observed in Germany right after the war - “Cities were dead, factories idle bridges down, rails gone. Rubble was everywhere”

(Kimer, p. 283, 1986). World War II completely destroyed Daimler-Benz, at one time the world’s largest automobile company.

It took more than three years to rebuild the factories. However, many divisions of the company were lost because they ended up in East

Germany. At first the company was rebuilding U.S. army vehicles. By 1949, over 6,000 cars had been built and the main focus of Mercedes-Benz was again the production of luxury cars (Kimer, p. 290, 1986).

Within the next two years, the company was completely rebuilt and the number of employees since the beginning of the war was doubled. Now the number of workers was almost 40,000. By the year 1952, Mercedes-Benz had built 100,000 cars and 250 in the United States. In 1955, the new models