The origins of the company date back to the mid-1880s, when Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900) and Karl Benz (1844-1929) invented the internal combustion engine-powered automobile independently, in south-western Germany. Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach worked together in Cannstatt (a city district of Stuttgart) and built the first four wheeled, four-stroke engine powered automobile in 1889 (known as the "Cannstatt-Daimler"); Benz, who had his shop in Mannheim, is said to have invented the worlds first true automobile powered by an internal combustion engine in 1885. (www.wikipedia.com)(www.bbc.com)