Table of Contents Table of Contents Members of the Supervisory Board and the Board of Management Directors and Daimler-Benz Group Representatives To the Stockholders and Friends of our Company Report of the Board of Management Business Review The Group's Corporate Units and Divisions Mercedes-Benz Passenger Car Division Commercial Vehicle Division AEG Deutsche Aerospace (DASA) Daimler-Benz InterServices (debis) Research and Technology Employees Finance The Daimler-Benz Share Financial Statements Proposal for the Allocation of Unappropriated Profit Report of the Supervisory Board Daimler-Benz in Figures Principle Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies HERMANN J. ABS HUGO LOTZE*) Frankfurt am Main Reinhardshagen Honorary Chairman, Chairman of the Labor Council, Deutsche Bank AG Kassel Plant, Mercedes-Benz AG Honorary Chairman DIPL.-ING. HANS-GEORG POHL Hamburg HILMAR KOPPER Chairman of the Frankfurt am Main Board of Management, Member of the Board of Management, Supervisory Board Deutsche Shell AG Deutsche Bank AG Chairman DR. RER. POL. WOLFGANG RÖLLER Frankfurt am Main KARL FEUERSTEIN*) Speaker for the Board of Management, Mannheim Dresdner Bank AG Chairman of the Corporate Labor Council, Daimler-Benz AG SIEGFRIED SAUTER*) Chairman of the Joint Labor Council, Frankfurt am Main Mercedes-Benz AG Deputy Chairman of the Corporate Labor Council, Daimler-Benz AG Deputy Chairman Chairman of the Joint Labor Council, AEG Aktiengesellschaft PROF. DR. RER. NAT. GERD BINNIG Munich DR. JUR. ROLAND SCHELLING Head of IBM Physics Group Stuttgart Attorney at Law DIPL.-ING. RICHARD BOLLMANN*) Mannheim Senior Manager, Deputy Chairman PETER SCHÖNFELDER*) Augsburg of the Senior Managers' Committee, Member of the Labor Council, Mercedes-Benz AG Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm GmbH PROF. DR.-ING. E.H. WERNER BREITSCHWERDT Stuttgart PROF. DR. IUR. JOHANNES SEMLER Kronberg/Taunus Member of the Board of Management, DR. RER. POL. HORST J. BURGARD Mercedes Aktiengesellschaft Holding Frankfurt am Main Member of the Board of Management, Deutsche Bank AG FRANZ STEINKÜHLER*) Frankfurt am Main First Chairman, Metal-Workers' Union HELMUT FUNK*) Stuttgart Chairman of the Labor Council, HERMANN-JOSEF STRENGER Leverkusen Untertürkheim Plant and Main Office, Chairman of the Board of Management, Mercedes-Benz AG Bayer AG ERICH KLEMM*) Calw BERNHARD WURL*) Mainz Member of the Labor Council, Departmental Manager within the Sindelfingen Plant, Board of Management, Mercedes-Benz AG Metal-Workers' Union MARTIN KOHLHAUSSEN Frankfurt am Main Retired from the Supervisory Board: Speaker for the Board of Management, Commerzbank AG DR. IUR. WALTER SEIPP (from June 26, 1991) Frankfurt am Main Chairman of the Supervisory Board, RUDOLF KUDA*) Commerzbank AG Frankfurt am Main Departmental Manager within the (on June 26, 1991) Board of Management, Metal-Workers' Union *) Elected by the employees. Board of Management EDZARD REUTER Stuttgart Chairman PROF. DR.-ING. E.H. DR. H.C. WERNER NIEFER Stuttgart Mercedes-Benz Board of Management Deputy Chairman DR. JUR. MANFRED GENTZ Berlin/Stuttgart Daimler-Benz InterServices (debis) DR. JUR. HANS-WOLFGANG HIRSCHBRUNN Stuttgart Personnel DR. RER. POL. GERHARD LIENER Stuttgart Finance and Materials JÜRGEN E. SCHREMPP Munich Deutsche Aerospace (DASA) ERNST G. STÖCKL Frankfurt am Main AEG HELMUT WERNER Stuttgart Mercedes-Benz PROF. DR.-ING. HARTMUT WEULE Stuttgart Research and Technology Directors/Daimler-Benz Group Representatives WERNER POLLMANN DR. JUR. BOY-JÜRGEN ANDRESEN Technology, Environmental Officer Personnel and Social Policy Daimler-Benz HANSJÖRG BAUMGART JÖRG SEIZER Daimler-Benz Art Possessions Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies MARTIN BERGER KONRAD STRAUB Directors Annual Accounts and Disclosure Corporate Auditing DR. RER. POL. ROLF A. HANSSEN DR. OEC. PUBL. PAUL WICK*) Corporate Planning and Controlling Finance and Taxes MATTHIAS KLEINERT*) DR. JUR. SOLMS WITTIG*) Public Relations and Economic Policy Staff Lawyer DR.-ING. MICHAEL KRÄMER GERD WORIESCHECK (provisionally) Personnel Development for Research 1 Senior Executives DR. RER. NAT. VOLKER LEHMANN Research 2 I With general power of procurement Berlin Hong Kong PETER-HANS KEILBACH KLAUS B. BEHRENDT Englerallee 40 6th Floor, Ruttonjee House D-1000 Berlin 33 1 Duddell Street, Central Hong Kong Bonn Daimler-Benz Group Tokyo ALFONS PAWELCZYK Representatives Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 26 MICHAEL N. BASSERMANN D-5300 Bonn 1 SVAX TT Building 3-11-15 Toranomon Minato-Ku, Tokyo 105 Brüssels Japan DR. JUR. HANNS R. GLATZ 133, Rue Froissart - Bte 29 Washington D.C. B-l 040 Brüssels RICHARD H. IMUS Suite 800, 1350 1 Street, N.W. Washington D.C. 20005 U.S.A. To the Stockholders and Friends of our Company Throughout the year, your com­ Thus it is as rewarding as ever to pany is exposed to the scrutiny of a place one's trust in Daimler-Benz. The critical public. This is only right and strength of the company, as always, proper - so long as the scrutiny re­ derives from its ability not to gear its mains objective, and for the most part development primarily, let alone ex­ this has so far been the case. We be­ clusively, to short-term yardsticks of lieve we have an active obligation to success. provide regular, comprehensive and This is fully compatible however open information. One might well with a determination to act very therefore wonder what really new promptly indeed wherever such action information, apart from columns of is called for. We have demonstrated figures, an annual report can contain. this on many occasions recently, wher­ The answer is that in our annual ever the restructuring of our corporate report, we set out to do far more than units in accordance with competitive simply fulfil our legal duty. In the in­ criteria was concerned. We were terests of everyone connected in any particularly saddened by the conse­ way with Daimler-Benz, we wish to quences of AEG's unavoidable with­ make it clear why loyalty to the com­ drawal from the office and communi­ pany is worthwhile not only for the cation systems sector for jobs at its lo­ customer but also for the shareholder. cation in Wilhelmshaven. At the same The same goes for our employees: time, these events nevertheless despite our endeavors to keep them showed that it is also possible, when permanently abreast of events, they all parties concerned co-operate re­ too will find no better summary than sponsibly, to keep the burden on those this annual report. directly concerned within acceptable I stress this in view of the fact that bounds. the competitiveness of your company Of course, the problems facing us is closely bound up with the skills, the are similar to those facing other com­ hard work and the enthusiasm of the panies too. The relinquishing of the Of­ people who work for us. That is why fice and Communication Systems field we feel particularly pleased that we of activity indicates, not least, the near are so much sought after by young impossibility of manufacturing certain men and women all over the world industrial products competitively in who are looking for a fulfilling career. Germany. New requirements in envi­ We are also aware that at the higher ronmental matters, trends in traffic levels of management too we must flows, the Single European Market, resolutely aim for internationalization German unification, the restoration of if we are to maintain our ground freedom in the post-Communist coun­ successfully in global competition. tries, the globalization of economic In this context, we are particularly activity - all of these create new tasks grateful that recent decisions by the and new difficulties. At the same time, Supervisory Boards of Daimler-Benz however, enormous new opportunities AG and Mercedes-Benz AG, have once are opened up. again created a balanced age structure Our competitors are as aware of in these bodies. this as we are. It therefore continues Besides making provision for the to be of crucial importance that we future, we also regard this as impres­ successfully implement, in our day-to­ sive testimony to the broad fund of day operations, the strategic path on experienced management potential at which our company is embarked and our disposal. which is entirely correct in its concep­ tion. In this regard, I believe that a thoroughly respectable picture again emerges when we take stock of the past year. To the Stockholders and Friends of our Company This is reflected above all in the Another objective must be to en­ In the area of rail systems, for fact that both our internal operating sure even more rigorously than before example, some European companies results and the net income shown in that your company has sufficient have not, by world standards, achieved the financial statements are once presence in the international markets a "critical mass" and have also up to again moving in an upward direction - as far as the location of operations is now had some degree of protection in although it should be borne in mind concerned. This applies not only to the their national markets. Additionally, that we are merely coming out of a sales organization, but also to manu­ pioneer markets exist which are cur­ high-level plateau rather than emerg­ facturing operations or research and rently in transition to an era of high ing from a trough. There can be very development. The agreement to manu­ growth; as a result, international com­ few companies able to even contem­ facture Mercedes-Benz engines in pany structures in the fields of space, plate such an ambitious re-orientation South Korea under license, and the civilian aircraft and systems services of their strategy and of their entire related acquisition of an interest in are undergoing constant change. company structure without the associ­ SsangYong Motor Company is one ex­ Further action is therefore re­ ated costs plunging their annual ample; the founding of the Eurocopter quired, worldwide, although we re­ results far into the red. S.A. joint venture by Deutsche Aero­ main convinced that despite the global Your company has again, despite space and its French partner Aero­ developments, Europe must remain all the burdens, successfully held its spatiale is another.