Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (abbreviated as DMG, also known as Daimler Motors Corporation) was a German engineering company and later automobile manufacturer, in operation from 1890 until 1926.

Because of the post World War One German economic crisis, in 1926 DMG merged with Benz & Cie., becoming Daimler-Benz and adopting Mercedes-Benz as its automobile trademark.

DMG thus grew out of an extension of the independent businesses of Daimler and Maybach, who would revolutionize the world with their inventions for the automobile of a four-stroke petrol engine, carburetor, and so on.

On 5 July 1887 Daimler purchased a property in Seelberg Hill (Cannstatt) previously owned by Zeitler & Missel who had used it as a precious metal foundry.

Not really believing in automobile production the financiers expanded the stationary engine business, as they were selling well, and even considered a merger with Otto's Deutz-AG.

[3] Following the withdrawal of Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach to their own business to concentrate on cars,[2] the enterprise had been close to a crisis but stabilised itself, selling mobile and stationary engines through a number of retailers around the world, from New York City to Moscow.

DMG's automobile sales took off, particularly with the first Daimler-Mercedes engine designed by Maybach placed into several race cars of 1900 built for Emil Jellinek.

In 1902, DMG produce the first Mercedes models, led by the 60, the most famous early model, and officially adopted Mercedes as its automobile trademark; capable of 120 km/h (75 mph), the 60 combined touring and racing capacity, and was the top-status car to own (or for other makers, among them Berliet, Rochet-Schneier, Martini, Ariel, Star and FIAT, to copy; in the U.S., Daimler Manufacturing Company {Long Island City, New York} may have built one under licence in association with Steinway).

The local Mayor Eduard Fiechtner sold the land (185,000 square meters) at a low price and also arranged for a railroad extension with its own station and energy from the Neckar's hydro-electric plant which had been built in 1900.

DMG had planned to open the facility in 1905 but the total destruction of Cannstatt's factory by fire in 1903 hastened the work and the new Art-Nouveau building, with a jagged-roof, was brought forward to start production in December 1903.

All the machinery and 93 finished Mercedes cars, a quarter of the annual production, were destroyed, together with a small museum with historical items like Daimler-Maybach's first ever motorcycle, the Reitwagen.

DMG created a Relief Fund (one of the first worker insurance schemes) and began building separator blocks in all its plants.

Once the public corporation was formed, motorboat production became one of the new financiers' main interests and lead in 1902 to the building of the Berlin-Marienfelde factory specifically for their manufacture.

Daimler had sold automobile-engine licences all over the world including to France, Austria, the UK, and the United States through an agreement with the piano-maker Steinway, in New York.

In 1902, the Mercedes car was built, compact and modern, with many improved features, a move which sparked the board's interest in automobile production.

In 1894, while working from temporary premises in the unused Hermann Hotel in Cannstatt, Gottlieb Daimler, his son Paul, and Wilhelm Maybach designed the Phoenix engine.

In 1902, an automobile that would later be called the Mercedes 35 hp was created by Maybach to the order of the successful Austrian merchant Emil Jellinek who became fascinated by both the Phoenix engine and race cars.

Jellinek's pursuit of higher speed brought him to Stuttgart personally, to Wilhelm Maybach's office where he also met with Paul Daimler, son of Gottlieb.

Jellinek had promised to purchase a large number of the race cars, (36 units for 550,000 Goldmark), if he could also be the sole concessionaire in Austria-Hungary, France, Belgium, and the US, using the name Daimler-Mercedes for the engine, and also become a member of the Board of Management.

DMG expanded with a subsidiary company in Austria Edouard Sarazin began early negotiations to license Gottlieb Daimler's engines in France.

After his death, his wife finally succeeded, helped by Émile Levassor and René Panhard (then a timber-machinery manufacturers) selling their first engine in 1887.

Armand Peugeot, one of their clients, began fitting vehicles with Panhard & Levassor engines, and acquired Daimler's licence from them.

Marketed in October 1891, it featured rear wheel drive by two side chains, pedal clutch, front radiator, and steering by lever.

[2] At the end of 1895 Simms received an offer from a London company promoter called Lawson of, at first, £35,000 to purchase all the Daimler rights.

[2] In 1910 Daimler Motor Company while retaining a separate identity, merged ownership with that of BSA (munitions), and began producing military vehicles.

[2] For over 65 years, The Daimler Company Limited produced a wide variety of premium quality vehicles including buses, ambulances, fire engines and some trucks but in particular medium-sized and large cars which were often very expensive.

Since then, this line has inspired both Daimler and Maybach when developing light and powerful engines for "land, water, and air".

The four-pointed star became the emblem of Deutsche Aerospace AG (DASA) in the 1980s and then the logo of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).

For the two separate businesses to survive the financial problems of the day, in 1919, Benz & Cie. proposed a merger, but DMG formally rejected it in December.

Then, as the German crisis worsened, the struggling firms met again in 1924 and signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest, valid until the year 2000.