The three-pointed star is one of the simplest yet most recognisable emblems in motoring, something which made it particularly popular with car-badge-stealing yobs in the 1980s. The tale of its inspiration comes from eight decades before the heyday of such mild criminality, when Paul and Adolf Daimler, the two sons of Mercedes’s parent company’s founder Gottlieb Daimler, decided to immortalise their father’s love of stars, after he died in March 1900. He had once marked a star on a picture postcard that featured his own house, and had written to his wife that it would one day shine over his own factory to symbolise prosperity. While two- and four-pointed stars were already trademarks, a three-pointed logo was not, and from 1910 onwards, such a shining light has adorned Mercedes radiators. Various embellishments have been made over the years, but the three-pointed star remains a reminder of a trailblazing carmaker.
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