Emil Jellinek

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Emil Jellinek-Mercédès

Emil Jellinek-Mercédès (born April 6, 1853 in Leipzig , † January 21, 1918 in Geneva ; until 1903 Emil Jellinek ) was an Austro-Hungarian businessman, diplomat and racing car driver .

Life

Emil Jellinek was the son of the Viennese rabbi and scholar Adolf Jellinek and his wife Rosalie, née Bettelheim. Rosalie Bettelheim was born in Budapest in 1832 . She died in Baden near Vienna in 1892 . Emil Jellinek was first married to Rachel Goggmann Cenrobert (1854–1893), from a French- Sephardic family based in Algiers . This marriage resulted in the children Adolph, Fernand Raoul and Mercédès Adrienne Ramona Manuela .

In his second marriage he was married to Madeleine Henriette Dittholer or Anaise Engler from 1899; the information is contradictory. They had the children Alain Didier, Guy, René and Andrée (called "Maja"). With regard to his schooling, Emil Jellinek was the black sheep in his family: his father was a scholar, his mother was also well-read, the two brothers were professors, but he wasn't interested in learning at school. He changed schools several times without success, at seventeen he found a job with a railway company, at nineteen he went to France. Through his father's connections, the Austrian consul brought him to Tangier and Tetuan , which marked the beginning of his career in the diplomatic service.

Mercédès Adrienne Manuela Ramona Jellinek

In 1874 Jellinek was drafted to Vienna for military service, but was found unfit, returned to Algeria as Vice Consul , organized a tobacco trade with his future father-in-law as a partner and soon became quite wealthy. He also took on a role for a French insurance company, for which he also opened a branch in Vienna, married in Oran , and his first two sons were born there. Entrusted with the Austrian representation of the insurance company, Jellinek moved with the family to Baden near Vienna in 1884, where he later had the impressive Villa Mercedes built after his daughter Mercédès was born there in 1889. The insurance business flourished, Jellinek was also very successful on the stock exchange, but when Mercédès was four years old, his mother died. The family now often spent the winters on the Riviera , where contacts to the local aristocracy and international business community were established. It was there that Jellinek's fascination with automobiles began.

Emil Jellinek's first vehicle was a De Dion-Bouton Tricycle , which was later followed by a Léon-Bollée -Voiturette and a Benz carriage. When he became aware of the Cannstatt company in 1896 at the age of 43 through a DMG advertisement in the Fliegende Blätter , he traveled to Cannstatt to find out more about Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach and ordered a Daimler car. This was the beginning of a very fruitful collaboration for both sides.

Starting in 1898, Emil Jellinek, who had access to the financial high society and above all to the high finance of France, now sold Daimler automobiles and, in order to boost sales, also registered them in car races. Inspired by the name of his daughter Mercédès Adrienne Manuela Ramona , he is said to have participated in races himself under the pseudonym "Monsieur Mercédès". However, this is disputed as a legend put into the world by Braunbeck's sports dictionary in 1910. On the other hand, it is correct that Jellinek christened his Daimler touring car with her nickname for the sake of his ten-year-old daughter and registered it as a racing car so that it won the Semaine automobile in Nice on March 21, 1899 at an average speed of 34.57 km / h. However, it was not until a year later that drivers Wilhelm Bauer and Hermann Braun started under the pseudonyms “Mercedes I” and “Mercedes II” at the race week in Nice. On the other hand, Robert Dick writes in his book on car racing in the Belle Epoque (in translation):

“Jellinek registered a 4.9 liter Phoenix for the driver 'Mercédès' for the race to Magagnosc, and after 85km and 2h 27min 30sec it was Mercédès who had won. Who did Mercédès leave behind? Two more 4,9l under 'Dr. Pascal 'and Arthur de Rothschild, the two best customers of the Jellinek team. Of course, it was Jellinek who was behind 'Mercédès'. Behind 'Dr. Pascal 'hid the doctor Henri de Rothschild […], nephew of the banker Arthur. But the main work on the steering wheels of the Rothschild-Daimler was done by Hermann Braun and Wilhelm Werner, at least when there were no prominent spectators in sight. Obvious pseudonyms were part of good manners [...] a triple victory, even if the race was just an elegant coffee party - and order books full to the brim. "

Whether father Mercédès or Auto Mercédès - the first name of Jellinek's daughter was soon known. In April 1900, "Mercedes" became the product name for a new chassis and engine design inspired by Jellinek, which was called "Daimler-Mercedes". From April 2, 1900 until 1909, Emil Jellinek had a seat on the supervisory board of DMG and ordered a total of 36 automobiles for the then horrific sum of 550,000 gold marks , which, however, met the condition accepted by DMG after the sole distribution in Austria-Hungary, France and Belgium and the USA where the vehicles should be called “Mercedes”. In the rest of the sales area, the new cars with larger track width, lower center of gravity and more powerful engine were simply called "New Daimler". In June 1902, “Mercedes” was registered as a trademark and three months later it was also legally protected. In June 1903 Emil Jellinek's application was approved to change his family name to " Jellinek-Mercédès ", and after the Villa Mercedes in Baden near Vienna, a second "Villa Mercedes" was built in Nice , which was later followed by another "Villa Mercedes II" should.

Jellinek's interest in cars gradually waned, and differences of opinion grew bigger and bigger, so that he finally left DMG and devoted himself entirely to his consular career.

"Mercedeshof" (including garage extension), Baden near Vienna, Wiener Straße 45 (picture: undated)

In 1907 Jellinek became the Austro-Hungarian Consul General in Nice, and a short time later Consul of Mexico . From 1909 he was head of the Austro-Hungarian consulate in Monaco . He completely parted with his trading business, but had previously acquired a number of properties - two hotels in Nice, one in Paris, casinos, an immense Château Robert between Nice and Toulon, which was considered his private residence but was hardly used two villas Mercedes I and Mercedes II in Nice, both on the Promenade des Anglais . The Villa Mercedes in Baden got a neighbor, the Villa Didier, and construction continued there until the “Mercedeshof” complex finally comprised 50 rooms, 8 bathrooms and 23 toilets. Since 1945 only the garage wing has been preserved.

Shortly before the outbreak of the World War, Jellinek was to be taxed in Austria for his French possessions. He signed his Baden villa over to the children who moved to Semmering , and he no longer came to Austria. After the outbreak of the war, people in France no longer dared speak German in public. Jellinek was suspected of espionage, while his French wife was suspected in Austria. The family finally met in Geneva in 1917, where Jellinek died the following year at the age of 64. He was buried on the Cimetière du Chateau in Nice in the immediate vicinity of Léon Gambetta .

His son Raoul Fernand Jellinek-Mercedes was a supporting member of the Wiener Musikverein . He was persecuted by the National Socialists , as were the children of Mercédès.

Emil Jellinek-Mercédès' brothers are the linguist Max Hermann Jellinek (1868–1938) and the constitutional law teacher Georg Jellinek (1851–1911).

literature

Web links

Commons : Emil Jellinek  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Dick: Mercedes and Auto Racing in the Belle Epoque, 1895-1915. McFarland, Jefferson (North Carolina) 2005, ISBN 0-7864-1889-3 , p. 52 ( limited preview in Google Book Search); and Ernst Probst: Mercedes Jellinek: A nickname for an automobile ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Biographies news @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / biografien-news.blog.de
  2. ↑ a b Jewish community: Mercedes-Villa Baden ( Memento from February 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Guy Jellinek-Mercédès: Mon Père, Monsieur Mercédès , French original title of Mein Vater, der Herr Mercedes , Neff, Vienna-Berlin-Stuttgart 1962; and Robert Dick: Mercedes and Auto Racing in the Belle Epoque, 1895–1915 , McFarland, Jefferson (North Carolina) 2005, p. 66: … to Vienna, the hometown of Monsiur Mercedes.
  4. ↑ Emil Jellinek and his daughter Mercedes  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Website Mercedes-Benz Austria and Günther Strauss: How did Mercedes get its name? . Gilthserrano Management Magazine@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www2.mercedes-benz.at  
  5. ↑ Gustav Brown Beck: Sportlexikon. Automobilism, motor boating, aviation , Braunbeck-Gutenberg Ag, 1910
  6. ↑ Ernst Probst: Mercedes Jellinek: A nickname for an automobile ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , biografien-news, December 5, 2006 and biographies of famous people ( memento of the original from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , biographies-news @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / biografien-news.blog.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / biografien-news.blog.de
  7. ^ Robert Dick: Mercedes and Auto Racing in the Belle Epoque, 1895-1915 , McFarland, Jefferson (North Carolina) 2005, pp. 33f. ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  8. ↑ Anett Krause, Cordula Reuß [Ed.]: Nazi looted goods in the Leipzig University Library: [Catalog for the exhibition in the Bibliotheca Albertina, November 27, 2011 to March 18, 2012] . Leipzig University Library, writings from the Leipzig University Library; 25, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Jellinek, Emil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jellinek-Mercédès, Emil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-Hungarian businessman, consul and racing car driver
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1918
Place of death Geneva