Mercédès Jellinek

Mercedes Adrienne Ramona Manuela Jellinek (September 16, 1889 – February 23, 1929) was the daughter of Austrian automobile entrepreneur Emil Jellinek and his first wife Rachel Goggmann Cenrobert. She was born in Vienna.[1] She is best known for her father having Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft's line of Mercedes cars named after her, beginning with the Mercedes 35 HP model of 1901.[2] In addition, her father hung a large picture of her at the 1902 Paris Automobile exhibition. He even legally changed his name to Jellinek-Mercedes in 1903[3] after Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft registered Mercedes as a trademark in 1902.[4] Her name is a Spanish Christian name meaning mercy.[5]

Mercedes Jellinek

Jellinek-Mércedès grave, Zentalfriedhof, Vienna

Mercedes lived in Vienna, and married twice.[4] She had an elaborate wedding in 1909 in Nice, on the Côte d'Azur, with Baron von Schlosser. The couple lived in Vienna until World War I, which ruined them. They had two children; Elfriede (b. 1912) and Hans-Peter (b. 1916).[1] In 1918, Mercedes was begging for food in the streets. A little later, leaving her husband and two children, she married Baron Rudolf von Weigl, a talented, but poor, sculptor. She played music and had a good soprano voice. She never shared her father's passion for automobiles. Jellinek died in Vienna, from bone cancer, in 1929, at the age of 39, and was buried in Vienna in the family grave near her grandfather, the former chief rabbi of Vienna, Adolf Jellinek.[6][7]

In 1926, Daimler merged with Benz & Cie; although the company traded as Daimler-Benz, it gave the name Mercedes-Benz to its cars to preserve the respected Mercedes marque.