Wilhelm Maybach (help·info) (German pronunciation: [ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈmaɪbax]; 9 February 1846 – 29

December 1929) was an early German engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he
was hailed in France, then the world centre for car production, as the "King of Designers".
From the late 19th century Wilhelm Maybach, together with Gottlieb Daimler, developed light,
high-speed internal combustion engines suitable for land, water, and air use. These were fitted to
the world's first motorcycle, motorboat, and after Daimler's death, a new automobile introduced in
late 1902, the Mercedes model, built to the specifications of Emil Jellinek.
Maybach rose to become technical director of the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) but did
not get along with its chairmen. As a result, Maybach left DMG in 1907 to found Maybach-
Motorenbau GmbH together with his son Karl in 1909; they manufactured Zeppelin engines. After
the signing of the Versailles Treaty in 1919 the company started producing large luxury vehicles,
branded as "Maybach". The company joined the German war effort in 1940, ceasing automotive
production in favour of tank engines, including those for the Tiger I and Tiger II heavy tanks.
Revived after the war Maybach Motorenbau which remained a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau
Zeppelin was making diesel engines. During the 1960s Maybach came under the control of
Daimler-Benz and was renamed MTU Friedrichshafen.
In 2002 the Maybach brand name was revived for a luxury make but it was not successful. On 25
November 2011 Daimler-Benz announced they would cease producing automobiles under
the Maybach brand name in 2013.[1] In 2014, Daimler announced production of an ultra-luxury
edition of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class under the new Mercedes-Maybach brand.[2]

Early life and career beginnings (1846 to 1869)[edit]

Wilhelm Maybach was born in Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg in 1846, the son of a carpenter and
his wife Luise. He had four brothers. When he was eight years old the family moved
from Löwenstein near Heilbronn to Stuttgart. His mother died in 1856 and his father in 1859.
After his relatives published an announcement in the Stuttgarter Anzeiger newspaper, a
philanthropic institution at Reutlingen took in Maybach as a student. Its founder and
director, Gustav Werner, discovered Maybach's technical inclination and helped to stimulate his
career by sending him to the school's engineering workshop. At 15 years old (1861), Maybach
was heading for a career in Industrial design and took extra classes in physics and mathematics
at Reutlingen's public high school.
By the time he was 19 years old, he was a qualified designer working on stationary engines. His
workshop manager, Gottlieb Daimler, then 29, noticed his efforts and took him on as his main
assistant, a post he held until Daimler's death in 1900.

Daimler and Otto's four-stroke engine (1869 to 1880)[edit]

In 1869, Maybach followed Daimler to Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft Karlsruhe AG in Karlsruhe, a
manufacturer of heavy locomotives. Daimler was on the Executive Committee and they spent
long nights discussing new designs for engines, pumps, lumber machinery, and metalworking.
In 1872, Daimler moved to Deutz-AG-Gasmotorenfabrik in Cologne, then the world's largest
manufacturer of stationary gas engines. Nicolaus Otto, part owner of the company, focused on
engine development with Daimler. Maybach joined them as Chief Designer.
In 1876, Nicolaus Otto patented the Otto cycle engine. It was a four-stroke cycle gas internal
combustion engine with intake, compression, power, and exhaust strokes. One of Otto's more
than 25 patents on this engine was later challenged and overturned, allowing Daimler and
Maybach to produce their high-speed engine.
Also in 1876, Maybach was sent to show Deutz's engines at the Philadelphia World's Fair (USA).
On returning to Cologne in 1877, he concentrated on improving the four-stroke design to prepare
it for its impending commercial launch.
In 1878, Maybach married Bertha Wilhelmine Habermaas, a friend of Daimler's wife, Emma
Kunz. Her family members were landowners who ran the post office in Maulbronn. On 6 July
1879 Karl Maybach was born, the first of their three children.
In 1880, Daimler and Otto had serious disagreements, resulting in Daimler's leaving Deutz-AG.
Daimler received 112,000 goldmarks in Deutz-AG shares as compensation for patents granted to
him and Maybach. Maybach also left shortly afterwards, and followed his friend to found a new
company in Cannstatt.