Alfred Ritter von Dietrichson
1905-1916
German manufacturer of the car company that is now known as Mercedes-Benz.
Alfred Ritter von Dietrichson was born in Berlin and after his university graduation worked in Berlin’s Court of Foreign Affairs as a diplomatic courier. In 1882 he became the first representative of the State Railway Company of the Kingdom of Saxony in Berlin and soon after was promoted to Second Secretary of the Embassy.
Fascinated by aviation, Dietrichson applied for pilot training. His instructors recommended against it, but Dietrichson ignored their advice, and graduated from the Friedrichswerft (Pilot School) in Hanover in 1891.
The next year he became the State Company’s Chief Clerk and in 1904 was responsible for the organisation of a world first for Mercedes: a motor demonstration by a factory carmaker in Berlin that showed a new generation of cars.