Daimler-Benz was created by the 1926 merger of Benz & Cie. and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft.
The two companies were founded by pioneers Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, whose firms developed competing automobile businesses in Germany. Financial pressure and Germany’s difficult post–World War I economy encouraged cooperation, with Deutsche Bank helping promote the merger.
The companies formally combined on 28 June 1926 to create Daimler-Benz AG. The new company sold cars under the Mercedes-Benz brand, which is why “Mercedes-Benz” is a common but technically different answer: it was the marque, while Daimler-Benz was the legal company formed by the merger.
Daimler-Benz later expanded into trucks, buses, aircraft engines and other engineering fields. In 1998, it merged with Chrysler to form DaimlerChrysler; the company eventually became Daimler AG and, in 2022, Mercedes-Benz Group AG. The original merger answer remains Daimler-Benz.