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Exactly 175 years ago today, on February 9, 1846, Wilhelm Maybach was born in Heilbronn. To this day, his name lives on in the tradition of the Mercedes-Maybach brand. The second eldest son of a carpenter will shape the development of the automobile. This applies in particular to the time when Gottlieb Daimler was a companion until his death in 1900. Maybach possessed outstanding technical talent. His inventions made a significant contribution to making Daimler's visionary ideas for motorized mobility with a wide variety of means of transport a reality. We let Mercedes-Benz tell the story of Wilhelm Maybach...
Augustus Wilhelm Maybach, as the boy is called by his full name, was born in Heilbronn as the second eldest son of the carpenter Carl Maybach. The family moves to Stuttgart in the early 1850s. There, Maybach experienced severe blows of fate: his mother died in 1854 and only two years later he lost his father as well. Among other things, friends of the family are looking for a way to care for the orphans with a newspaper advertisement in the "Stuttgarter Anzeiger" of March 20, 1856. Wilhelm Maybach is taken in by the Bruderhaus in Reutlingen, which was founded by the Protestant theologian Gustav Werner and his wife Albertine. The Brother House includes so-called sanctuaries for orphans, schools and factories.
From confectioner to designer
First Wilhelm Maybach should learn the profession of baker and confectioner in the brother house. But Pastor Werner recognizes the great technical talent of the boy and encourages him. In 1861, Maybach began an apprenticeship in the machine factory's drawing office and attended classes in physics and freehand drawing at the town's advanced training school, and later also mathematics at the high school. In addition, he receives instruction in English and French before the start of his working days. In 1863, Gustav Werner hired the 29-year-old engineer Gottlieb Daimler as inspector of the brothers' joint workshops.
Daimler's work in Reutlingen marks the beginning of a fruitful partnership. Because the workshop inspector recognizes and supports Maybach's skills. So it was only logical that the young designer followed Daimler in September 1869 when he became a member of the board of the Karlsruhe mechanical engineering company. Maybach works there in the design office. The next change of employer and location is in 1872: Daimler becomes a member of the board of directors of Gasmotoren-Fabrik Deutz AG. The company was founded as a stock corporation in the same year by Nicolaus August Otto and the Langen and Pfeiffer families.
Maybach accompanied Daimler again and became head of the design department in Deutz in 1873. He is working on getting Otto's four-stroke engine ready for production. As early as 1875 he was experimenting with liquid fuel on a converted gas engine. In 1876, Maybach traveled to the United States of America on behalf of Deutz. Through his older brother Karl, he made contact with the piano manufacturer Steinway & Sons. In 1888, Gottlieb Daimler entered the North American market together with Steinway.
Daimler's visions and Maybach's inventions
In Deutz, Daimler was already pursuing the vision of a compact, high-speed internal combustion engine as a vehicle drive. But these ideas cannot be realized in the company. In mid-1882, Daimler left the Deutz gas engine factory and set up his own business in Cannstatt near Stuttgart. He signed an employment contract with Wilhelm Maybach in April 1882.
Maybach and Daimler are realizing the automobile pioneer's dream of motorizing mobility "on land, on water and in the air": From 1882, the first fast-running petrol engines are built at Daimler's property at Taubenheimstraße 13 - called "grandfather clock" because of their appearance - and with them the world's first motorcycle ("Reitwagen", 1885), the world's first motorboat (1886) and finally the world's first four-wheeled automobile (Daimler's motor carriage, 1886). Drives for rail vehicles (Daimler Motor-Waggonet, 1887) and the Wölfert motor airship (1888) followed later.
With constructions such as the four-speed change-speed gearbox with shiftable gears and the two-cylinder V-engine (built by Peugeot under license from 1890), Maybach continued to advance the young automobile technology. Even the dispute between Daimler and the company he founded in the early 1890s did not stop the inventor: in the rented garden room of the Hermann Hotel, he developed the “Phoenix” in-line two-cylinder engine and the spray nozzle carburetor. The Phoenix engine was so successful that international licensees brought about the return of Daimler and Maybach to Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in 1895.
The first modern automobile
Wilhelm Maybach, now technical director of DMG, continues to deliver one important invention after another: In 1897 the tubular cooler is registered as a utility model. In 1899, a four-cylinder engine was built for Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's airship. In 1900, DMG applied for a patent for Maybach's honeycomb cooler. And on November 22, the first Mercedes 35 hp is completed in Cannstatt. It is considered to be the first modern automobile ever.
He was commissioned by Emil Jellinek, Daimler's most important dealer at the time. The automobile that Maybach completely redesigned (lightweight construction, high-performance engine with an innovative radiator, long wheelbase and low center of gravity) dominated the internationally important motor sport meeting “Nice Week” from March 25 to 29, 1901. This roaring success finally brought Maybach the honorary name "King of Constructors".
In the years that followed until 1904, Maybach further developed the vehicle concept from the Mercedes Simplex 40 hp through the Simplex 60 hp to the Simplex 90 hp. But after Daimler's death on March 6, 1900, Maybach no longer had full support from the company. This becomes particularly clear after the death of the chairman of the DMG supervisory board, Max von Duttenhofer, in August 1903. Disagreements escalated in 1906: Maybach was an ardent supporter of motor racing as a driving force behind mass-produced automobile technology ("That's how you learn from racing, and it's certain that they brought our touring cars to perfection so rapidly and that they are just as necessary today like years ago. So! Let's stick to the races.").
He develops a racing car whose six-cylinder engine has an overhead camshaft with vertical shaft drive and high-voltage magneto ignition with two spark plugs. But instead of Maybach's highly modern design, a more conservative design by Paul Daimler was used. After DMG also closed the test workshop under Maybach, Maybach left the company in 1907.
New start with airship engines
The story of Wilhelm Maybach continues. In 1909, Maybach founded Luftfahrzeug-Motorenbau GmbH in Bissingen together with Graf von Zeppelin. The company, managed by Wilhelm's son Karl Maybach, changes location in 1912 and settles in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. After the end of the First World War, the company, which now trades as Maybach-Motorenbau, begins building automobiles. The first Maybach 22/70 hp (W 3) production car appeared in 1921 and was built until 1928. This closes a circle in the life of Wilhelm Maybach.
After leaving DMG, Maybach received numerous awards for his life's work: in 1915, the Kingdom of Württemberg appointed him Royal Senior Architect, and in 1916 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Technical University of Stuttgart. The Association of German Engineers (VDI) finally honored him in 1922 with the golden Grashof commemorative coin, the highest award. Wilhelm Maybach dies on December 29, 1929. He is buried in Cannstatt's Uff-Kirchhof, where Gottlieb Daimler is also buried. Experienced in the last year of his life Maybach nor the world flight of the airship LZ 127 "Graf Zeppelin", which is powered by Maybach twelve-cylinder engines designed by Karl Maybach. In 1996 he was inducted into the "Automotive Hall of Fame" and in 2004 into the "European Automotive Hall of Fame".
The Mercedes Maybach brand
Automobile construction at Maybach ended in 1941. But in 2002 the legendary name was reborn as the luxury brand of what was then DaimlerChrysler AG. The Maybach 62 and Maybach 57 luxury sedans from the 240 series redefine the standards at the top of automotive engineering.
The Mercedes-Maybach S-Class of the 222 series had its world premiere in November 2014. Since then, the brand has stood for vehicles of the highest exclusivity with unique comfort and elegant design - and this on the basis of cutting-edge technology. Highlights include the debuts of the Mercedes Maybach S 600 Pullman (2015) and the S 600 Pullman Guard with special protection (2016). The new Mercedes-Maybach S-Class of the 223 series has been continuing this excellent tradition since the end of 2020. The exclusive vehicles of the brand also include the Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 4MATIC.
An exciting story by Wilhelm Maybach. One of the most inventive motorists of the last century.