In 1890, Eduard Bierenz was appointed as Austrian retailer. The company sold so well that it also began manufacturing the automobiles after uniting with Eduard Fischer's engineering factory. The works were located at Wiener-Neustadt. By this subsidiary DMG became the first automotive multinational in history.
Thus on August 11, 1899, the Austrian Daimler Engine Society was founded. Whilst the assembling parts stemmed from Stuttgart, in 1900 they built their first automobile which featured 2 cylinders, 4hp (3.0kW), and 4 seats. Soon they started producing engines for luxurious cars, trucks, buses, maritime ships, and trains.
Paul Daimler era
Austro-Daimler 4x4 four-wheel-drive Armoured Car (1904)
In 1902, Paul Daimler, Gottlieb Daimler's son, took charge of the Technical Department. He developed a compact car (8hp, 45km/h). In 1905 he built the company's first armoured car, which had 30hp (22kW). Also, the company produced engines for both trucks and buses. However, Daimler returned to Stuttgart in 1905 to take over the research and development department, which had been vacated by Maybach.
Ferdinand Porsche era
Senior Ferdinand Porsche took Daimler's place as technical designer. Although Austro-Daimler cars were competing at races already, Porsche pioneered aerodynamic usage with two famous racecars (Mixte and Maya). Also, he designed the Mercédès-Electrique-Mixte which was manufactured from 1902 until 1907.
Porsche also impelled a company reformation, at a time when the company had 800 workers. The company was renamed 'Austro-Daimler' on July 27, 1906. That same year Emil Jellinek — who was Austrian too — bought several Austro-Daimler licenses to found ancillary companies abroad.
In 1908, the Austro-Daimler began producing Zeppelin engines. Indeed, for Porsche this was a personal interest since he liked to take Archduke Franz Ferdinand flying over Vienna.
Pushing the company's development further, Porsche granted Austro-Daimler's definitive independence from DMG's ownership in 1909. In 1910, the company was renamed Oesterreichische Daimler Motoren AG (Austrian Daimler Engines AG) whose logo was the Austrian Royal double-headed eagle. In 1912 DMG sold its remaining shares.
In 1911 Austro-Daimler began producing the Prinz Heinrich (in English: Prince Henry) model; this car, which featured an overhead cam 5,714-cc four-cylinder engine, quickly became famous. It could develop 95 bhp at 2,100 rpm; there was also a less potent version with side valves and a 6,900-cc engine capable of developing 60hp (45kW) at only 1,200 rpm. Both designs were by Porsche.
WW I
Striking workers from Austro-Daimler assembling outside the Town Hall, Wiener Neustadt, 18 January 1918
During the First World War, the 4,500 workers of Austro-Daimler contributed in large quantities to wartime production. They played a key role in the 1918 Austro-Hungarian January Strike in which workers inspired by the Bolshevik seizure of power took strike action to oppose the war. A key factor in the strike was the halving of the flour ration. Porsche met the workers and agreed to drive to Vienna to speak to the Minister of Food. However, his plea to the workers to return to work was ignored and they marched on the Town Hall. Here they were joined by other workers from the locomotive factory, the radiator works, the aircraft factory and local ammunition plants of G. Rath and the Lichtenwörther. The assembly soon numbered over 10,000 and the Stadtholder phoned the Volksernährungsamt - the state organisation managing food supply. However, the minister, General Anton Höfer only promised to meet a delegation of the workers.[1] The strike spread across the empire and involved over 700,000 workers.[2]
1920–1930s
Share of the Oesterreichische Daimler Motoren AG, issued 22. September 1921
After the war, the company returned to the production of automobiles. Austro-Daimler still claimed Royal patronage via its connection with Prince Heinrich.
Soon, the company began collapsing. In the first place, Austro-Daimler fused with several companies —Skoda, Fiat, and Puch (1928). Then, it was submerged under Camillo Castiglioni's squandering management.
At this time, Porsche created the 1.3-liter "Sascha" racing cars (named after their backer, Count Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowski) in the early 1920s. The smallest model the company offered was a 2,212-cc four-cylinder. However, as the economic situation worsened, Porsche abandoned the company in 1923, ridding himself of Austro-Daimler's financial difficulties. Instead, he moved to Stuttgart's DMG.
Austro-Daimler ADR 8 Pullman (1932).
The outstanding production car offered by Austro-Daimler during the 1930s was the ADM, which featured overhead cam six-cylinder engines of 2,540 cc, 2,650 cc, and 2,994 cc. The last-named (the ADM III) developed 110hp (82kW) at 4,000 rpm and was one of the greatest automobiles of the decade. Also offered was a less luxurious sporting version, the 100hp (75kW)ADR.
1931 saw Austro-Daimler introduce a 4,624-cc eight-cylinder car, a superb, highly expensive luxury vehicle. The last great car built at the Austrian works was the six-cylinder "Bergmeister", which featured an overhead cam 3,614-cc engine that could develop 120hp (89kW) at 3,600 rpm; this car had a top speed of 140km/h (87mph). In 1934 the company merged with Steyr Automobile, creating the Steyr-Daimler-Puch conglomerate. However, in this same year, Austro-Daimler was dissolved.
Postwar era
In the 1970s and into the 1980s bicycles were made by Steyr-Daimler-Puch with some models bearing the Puch trademark, and more upscale models bearing the Austro-Daimler trademark. When the bicycle manufacturing aspects of the consortium were sold in 1987 to Piaggio & C. S.p.A. of Italy, the Puch trademark was conveyed however, the rights to the name Austro-Daimler were not sold. Since then no bicycles have been made bearing this trademark.
CarlFriedrich Benz was a German engine designer and automotive engineer. His Benz Patent Motorcar from 1885 is considered the first practical modern automobile and first car put into series production. He received a patent for the motorcar in 1886, the same year he first publicly drove the Benz Patent-Motorwagen.
Ferdinand Porsche was an Austro-Bohemian automotive engineer and founder of the Porsche AG. He is best known for creating the first gasoline–electric hybrid vehicle (Lohner–Porsche), the Volkswagen Beetle, the Auto Union racing cars, the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, and several other important developments and Porsche automobiles.
Wilhelm Maybach was an early German engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he was hailed in France, then the world centre for car production, as the "King of Designers".
Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler was a German engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf, in what is now Germany. He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development. He invented the high-speed liquid petroleum-fueled engine.
Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche, mainly known as Ferry Porsche, was an Austrian-German technical automobile designer and automaker-entrepreneur. He operated Porsche AG in Stuttgart, Germany. His father, Ferdinand Porsche Sr. was also a renowned automobile engineer and founder of Volkswagen and Porsche. His nephew, Ferdinand Piëch, was the longtime chairman of Volkswagen Group, and his son, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, was involved in the design of the 911.
Puch is a manufacturing company located in Graz, Austria. The company was founded in 1899 by the industrialist Johann Puch and produced automobiles, bicycles, mopeds, and motorcycles. It was a subsidiary of the large Steyr-Daimler-Puch conglomerate.
Johann Puch was a Slovene inventor and mechanic who went on to become the founder of the Austrian Puch automobile plants, then one of the most significant vehicle producers in Europe.
Emil Jellinek, known after 1903 as Emil Jellinek-Mercedes, was an automobile entrepreneur of the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG), responsible in 1900 for commissioning the first modern automobile, the Mercedes 35hp. Jellinek created the Mercedes trademark in 1902, naming it in honor of his daughter, Mercédès Jellinek.
Steyr-Daimler-Puch was a large manufacturing conglomerate based in Steyr, Austria, which was broken up in stages between 1987 and 2001. The component parts and operations continued to exist under separate ownership and new names.
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was a German engineering company and later automobile manufacturer, in operation from 1890 until 1926. Founded by Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900) and Wilhelm Maybach (1846–1929), it was based first in Cannstatt. Daimler died in 1900, and their business moved in 1903 to Stuttgart-Untertürkheim after the original factory was destroyed by fire, and again to Berlin in 1922. Other factories were located in Marienfelde and Sindelfingen.
The Mercedes 35 HP was a radical early car model designed in 1901 by Wilhelm Maybach and Paul Daimler, for Emil Jellinek. Produced in Stuttgart, Germany, by Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG), it began the Mercedes line of cars. Its name is derived from the power of the engine, 35 Pferdestärken(26 kW, approximately 35 horsepower).
The Mercedes Simplex was an automobile produced from 1902 to 1909 by the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft. It continued the use of the Mercedes name as the brand of DMG, rather than Daimler.
Daimler is a German surname. It may refer to:
Steyr was an Austrian automotive brand, established in 1915 as a branch of the Österreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft (ÖWG) weapon manufacturing company. Renamed Steyr-Werke AG in 1926 and merged with Austro-Daimler and Puch into Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG, it continued manufacturing Steyr automobiles until 1959.
The Steyr 50 is a small car released in 1936 by the Austrian automobile manufacturer Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG.
The Puch 500 is a city car produced by the Austrian manufacturer Puch, a subsidiary of Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Graz. It was built under licence from Fiat and was based on the Fiat 500.
Mercedes is a brand originally created by the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) and used for first time in the 35 hp model released by the company in 1901. DMG began to develop in 1900, after the death of its co-founder, Gottlieb Daimler. Although the name was not lodged as a trade name until 23 June 1902 and not registered legally until 26 September, the brand name eventually would be applied to an automobile model built by Wilhelm Maybach to specifications by Emil Jellinek. This vehicle was delivered to him on 22 December 1900.
Paul Daimler was a German mechanical engineer who designed automobiles. He was the eldest child of Gottlieb Daimler who founded Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and invented the petrol engine.
ÖAF is an initialism for Österreichische Automobil-Fabrik, previously known as Österreichische Austro-Fiat, an Austrian (Austro-Hungarian) car and truck manufacturer that now is completely incorporated into MAN.
The Steyr 120 Super, Steyr 125 Super and Steyr 220 were a series of medium-sized cars built by the Austrian firm Steyr-Daimler-Puch from 1935 to 1941. The moderately streamlined body was designed by technical director Karl Jenschke (1899-1969) and was manufactured by Gläser-Karosserie GmbH in Dresden. The design had a close resemblance to the smaller Steyr 100.
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