History of the
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DaimlerChrysler today is a worldwide operating technology holding. Its main business is the motor industry, to which in the last years the sectors aviation and astronautic, services and industrial partnerships were added.
The names of Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz stand for the invention of the automobil. Benz in 1883 founded his company in the city of Mannheim and in 1886 patented the "Benz - Motorwagen". At the same time and independent of that Daimler developed the automobile and in 1890 in Stuttgart founded the "Daimler - Motoren - Gesellschaft". In 1926 both companies merged to form the "Daimler - Benz AG". After 1945 representations and subsidiary companies were founded worldwide, among others in 1981 the utility vehicle producer "Freightliner" (USA) was taken over. In 1985 the "MTU" was taken over completely, as well as interests in "Dornier" and "AEG". In 1989 the company took over a majority interest in "MBB" and the "Deutsche Aerospace" was founded as the aviation and astronautic sector of the holding. In the same year the "Mercedes-Benz AG" is founded which is in existence until 1997. In 1990 the "debis", a subsidiary company specialised in services, was founded. Today this company covers the sectors of financial services / assurances, IT - Services, telecommunications- and media services, trade and real estate management . In 1993 the Daimler - Benz share was introduced at the New York Stock Exchange. In 1995 the railroad activities together with "ABB" were concentrated in the joint company "Adtranz". The spheres of business aviation and aeronautics today include commercial aircraft and helicopters, defense and civil systems, propulsion for aviation, satellites, astronautic infrastructure. The railroad systems (Adtranz), the sector of microelectronics and the MTU / diesel propulsion are directly administered industrial interests.
On November 17th 1998 Daimler-Benz and Chrysler merged to form "DaimlerChrysler AG".
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| Archive description |
The DaimlerChrysler Group archive:
The archive has existed as an institution since 1936. In April 1997 the hitherto independent archives of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace and MTU also came under the Group archive´s sphere of responsibility. The archive is split into four areas:
- 1. The technical archive:
Product-specific documents are kept in the technical archive, such as technical data, replacement parts catalogues, operating instructions, brochures, price lists, model lists, test reports, workshop literature and technical drawings. It embraces the following product areas : passenger cars, commercial vehicles - e.g. trucks, buses, municipal vehicles and special purpose vehicles - rail vehicles, stationary engines, aero-engines, and marine-engines.
In addition, there is a unique feature : the commission books and car and data cards, in other words the "birth certificates" of all vehicles ever produced by Daimler-Benz AG and one of its predecessors, Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, have been fully preserved. However, commission books of the company´s other predecessor firm, Benz & Cie. , have not all survived.
The comprehensive motor racing archive is another special feature and contains information and documents dating back to the first competitive automobile race in 1894, taking in the area of the silver arrows in the 1930s and 1950s and bringing the situation right up-to-date with maps of the circuits, starting lists, information on drivers and racing car technology and documentation concerning record-breaking drives.
- 2. The corporate archive:
The corporate archive contains non-product-related documents and papers and documents focusing on the founders of the company, corporate history, the development of the plants, Board of Management documentation (including minutes on Board of Management and Supervisory Board meetings), records of sales and distributions and participations, non-associated companies, press kits, the full range of art work including rare posters, valuable proofs and original graphics, coins, medals, trophies and awards and also the collection entitled "Historisches rund ums Auto und die DaimlerChrysler AG" [ All you need to know about the history of the automobile and DaimlerChrysler AG ].
There are a total of approximately 8,000 metres of papers and documents held by the archive as a whole, of which some 4,500 metres are accessible, i.e. available for use.
- 3. The media archive:
The majority of the documents contained in the media archive consist of historical photographs from all corporate units plus some 300,000 wide-format glass negatives, which are put on film for safe keeping, and photographic material from more recent times. There is estimated to be a total of approximately 2 million pictures stored in the archive. Historical film material copied on to video cassette provides another record of the impressive and eventful history of the company.
Although not all the audiovisual contemporary documents can be made available, the majority are accessible to interested parties thanks to modern methods of processing. It can, however, be a costly process for those wishing to make use of the material as not all the film rights are held by DaimlerChrysler AG.
- 4. The archive library:
The DaimlerChrysler Group archive has a reference library with a comprehensive collection containing some 7,500 titles, which is aligned to the contents of the archive and which stocks arounde 450 books that deal solely with the history of the company. As things stand, the library is supplemented by 400 new titles every year. This is on top of some 220 magazine titles, of which 90 are current issues. This allows both automobile and engineering historians and interested lay people to have constant access to valuable resources for their work.
The comprehensive stocks kept by the Group archive also form the basis for effective public relations activities.
The Group archive is committed to keeping its collections up-to-date to be used as an effective instrument in our company´s public relations activities and as a corporate "memory bank". The Daimler-Benz AG Board of Management took this commitment into consideration at its meeting on May 4, 1993, approving overall guidelines regarding the set-up and tasks of the Group archive. All departments possessing documents of importance to the Group archive are thus obliged to forward them. The Group archive is then itself responsible for assessing the value of the material to the archive and proceeds with its activities in accordance with all relevant legal and internal standards governing secrecy and waiting periods. We would like to ask all readers to take note of these overall guidelines.
Summary of Archive description:
Foundation : 1936
Sectors:
- 1. Technical Archive containing records concerning the products of the company : automobiles, utility vehicles,
railroad vehicles, stationary engines, aircraft engines, boat and ship engines, racing archive, collection Béla
Barényi.
- 2. Company Archive, among others records on the origins of the companies, plants, biographies, records of the
Board of Management, arts collection.
The technical archive and the company archive are comprised of approximately 8,000 linear metres of records.
- 3. Media Archive : photographs, films, videos (approximately 1,5 million units).
- 4. Printed matters Archive : prospectusses, brochures etc.
- 5. Library of the Archive : 450 shelf metres, 7,200 books, periodicals: 270 titles, 150 of these serial, reading library.
Records of other companies: "Auto Union" , "Maschinenfabrik Esslingen", "Württembergische Baumwollspinnerei".
Finding aids: The records are catalogued, the Media Archive is equippend with a media database.
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| Publications |
Daimler-Benz Classic Archive Edition:
This is an independent range of publications produced by the archive in cooperation with ´Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart´. They are written by archive staff and external authors who are given subject-specific assistance and focus on specific topics which have not been previously studied, making use of materials stored in the archive. The following publications have already been brought out:
- 1. "Lorbeer, Lächeln, Leidenschaften" (no English translation available)
- 2. "Das Mercedes-Benz Archiv: Archivführer" (no English translation available)
- 3. "Béla Barényi: The Father of Passive Safety"
- 4. "Benz & Cie.: zum 150. Geburtstag von Karl Benz" (no English translation available)
- 5. "Rudolf Caracciola: Titan am Volant" (no English translation available)
- 6. "Wilhelm Maybach: The father of Mercedes. For his 150th anniversary"
- 7. "Daimler-Benz Taxi: EinStern für das mobile Gewerbe" [ published by Stadler Verlag Konstanz ] (no English translation available)
The Group archive has also produced the following titles which focus on the corporate history:
- 1. "100 Jahre Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft" (no English translation available)
- 2. "Der Stern ihrer Sehnsucht" (no English translation available)
- 3. "Daimler-Benz: Wo das Auto anfing" (English translation forthcoming)
- 4. A history of Daimler-Benz AG
- DaimlerChrysler AG (Ed.) : Chronology. The History of Daimler-Benz AG and its predecessors 1883 - 1998. Stuttgart 1999.
- DaimlerChrysler AG (Ed.) : The Ultimate History of the Automobile. Mercedes - Benz. The Multimedia Encyclopedia of all Types and Models. Version 3.0. München 1999. (CD - ROM).
- Niemann , Harry : Béla Barényi. The Father of Passive Safety. A biographical and technical documentation of the development of safety in motor vehicle design. (Ed.): Mercedes-Benz AG). Stuttgart 1994.
- Niemann , Harry : Wilhelm Maybach. The Father of Mercedes. For his 150th anniversary (Ed.: Mercedes-Benz AG). Stuttgart 1996.
The CD-ROM entitled "The Ultimate Automobile History: Mercedes-Benz" is the most recent addition to the archive´s portfolio and follows the history of the company and its products from the very beginnings until the present day. Further publications are planned at unspecified intervals in the future.
In addition, publications are produced for specific purposes, such as the "Anniversary Dates" leaflet published annually and posters featuring our passenger car and bus ranges.
The "Stuttgarter Tage für Automobil- und Unternehmensgeschichte" [ Stuttgart convention on automobile and corporate history ] event:
A symposium entitled "Stuttgarter Tage für Automobil- und Unternehmensgeschichte" takes place on a roughly biannual basis. The event is held by the DaimlerChrysler Group archive in cooperation with the Chair of Science and technology at the University of Stuttgart.
An anthology is also produced to accompany the event and contains the texts of the conference lectures. The following volumes are available from previous events:
- 1991 : Preservation of tradition in the automobile industry
- 1993 : The development of motorization in the German Reich and in the post-Reich German states
- 1996 : 100 years of commercial vehicles: A reflection of the past and a look into the future
- 1998 : The history of road safety
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