Tag Archives: German Jews

Jews of the Week: Siegfried Marcus, Emil & Mercedes Jellinek

Car Inventors

Siegfried Marcus – Car Inventor

In 1870, German-Austrian Jew Siegfried Marcus (1831-1898) had the bright idea of putting a combustion engine on a handcart, creating the first-ever self-propelling vehicle powered by gasoline. In 1883, Marcus received the patent for the ignition system, leading to the first official automobile as we know it, called the “Second Marcus Car”. Thus was born the automobile industry, the internet of its day that immeasurably revolutionized the world. Meanwhile, fellow (non-Jewish) Germans Daimler and Maybach created the first car for market.

Son of a rabbi, Emil Jellinek made it happen

However, they could not sell their version until Emil Jellinek (1853-1918), the son of Hungarian-Czech Rabbi Aaron Jellinek, took over the business. He convinced Maybach to build a new and improved car, to be called Mercedes, named after his daughter Mercedes Jellinek. (“Mercedes” is a Spanish name that was given to the girl by her French-Sephardic mother, whom Emil Jellinek married during his time in France.) The Mercedes quickly shattered all records, going 60 km/h and easily winning the competitive Nice races. It was branded “the car of tomorrow” and took the world by storm. In the 1930s, the Nazi Ministry for Propaganda attempted to rewrite history by expunging any evidence of Marcus being the inventor of the car and giving credit to Daimler and Benz.

This is Mercedes – Jellinek that is

First Marcus Car of 1870

Words of the Week

No two cities have counted more with mankind than Athens and Jerusalem. Their messages in religion, philosophy and art have been the main guiding light in modern faith and culture. Personally, I have always been on the side of both…
– Winston Churchill

Second Marcus Car of 1888

Jew of the Week: Paul Ehrlich

The Guy Who Cured Syphilis

Paul Ehrlich – the guy who cured syphilis

Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915) A gifted bacteriologist, Ehrlich’s first major work was in creating a serum for diphteria, together with fellow German scientist von Behring. However, von Behring screwed him over and stole all the recognition (and money), winning a solo Nobel Prize in 1901. Unfazed, Ehrlich moved his attention elsewhere, isolating a compound to treat sleeping sickness. This won him a Nobel prize in 1908, along with fellow Jew Elie Metchnikoff. However, Ehrlich is most famous for creating Salvarsan, a drug that essentially cured syphilis. This was the most widely prescribed drug in the world for over 30 years! Aside from this, Ehrlich invented the earliest type of gram-staining (perhaps the most important tool in bacteriology), the concept of a “magic bullet” drug, and coined the term “chemotherapy”.

Words of the Week

“The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not.”
– George Bernard Shaw

Jew of the Week: Julius Fromm

Inventor of the Condom

Julius Fromm

Israel “Julius” Fromm (1883-1945) a Polish Jew who immigrated to Berlin, he is the inventor of the modern condom. Until his invention in 1912, most condoms were made from animal intestines and bladders. Fromm liquefied rubber with gasoline, allowing for a thin, flexible and durable condom. He received the patent in 1916 and by 1922, the “Fromm’s Act” brand was mass-produced across Europe. Today in Germany, “Fromm” is still a slang word for condom.

Words of the Week

“There is no such country as Palestine. ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria. ‘Palestine’ is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it.”
– Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, to British Peel Commission, 1937