Wilhelm Maybach the Roi des Constructeurs - King of Designers

Born February 9 1846 in Heilbron, Wilhelm Maybach who became known as the Roi des Constructeurs - King of Designers grew up one of six children who's family later moved to Stuttgart.

His mother died in 1854 and his father died two years later making young Wilhelm by the age of ten an orphan.

In response to an advertisement in the Stuttgarter Anzeiger newspaper, a charitable organization offered to look after young Maybach. He grew up in an orphanage known as Bruderhaus in Reutlingen and was trained as a technical draughtsman in the adjoining engineering works.

Gustav Werner, the founder and director of the school, spotted and nurtured young Maybach's technical talents.

During 1861 to 1865 Wilhelm Maybach trained as a draughtsman or draftsman and he also enrolled in evening classes for physics and mathematics.

It was in 1865 when Wilhelm Maybach was 19 years old that he met Gottlieb Daimler the technical manager of the works. Daimler recognized Wilhelm's talents and taking him under his wing, Maybach became Daimler's protégé.

The two developed a close working relationship and friendship that lasted until Daimler's death in 1900.

Maybach would follow Daimler to Karlaruhe in 1869 and in 1872 to the Gasmotorenfabrik AG in Co-logne, a company founded by Nicolaus Otto. There they worked on the four-stroke engine invented by Nicolaus Otto.

It was in 1878 that Wilhelm Maybach married Bertha Habermaas and on July 6, 1879 their son Karl Maybach was born.

In the middle of 1882 Daimler left Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz after a disagreement with Nicolaus Otto. and Wilhelm Maybach followed him to Cannstatt near Stuttgart where they converted a greenhouse into a workshop. Daimler established his own company which later became Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft.

In October of that same year, Maybach was able to develop the light-weight, high-speed internal combustion engines suitable for water, land-based and airborne vehicles.

They developed their engine after just one year of work. It was later in that same year that they really made strides with the 'grandfather clock' engine which was shaped like a grandfather clock.

It was a lightweight compact engine with a vertically fixed cylinder which was suited for installation in vehicles.

In 1885 this 0.5 horsepower engine was put on a wooden 'riding car' making the worlds first 'motor cycle'. Even though a year later, it was installed into a carriage, Maybach quickly realized he couldn't be content with just producing engines for carriages.

The steel-wheeled car was the first of such products. It was with this vehicle that Maybach introduced the sliding pinion gearshift system into automotive engineering.

Presented at the Paris World Exhibition of 1889, the steel-wheeled car also precipitated the birth of the French automotive industry.

In November 1890 when Daimler founded 'Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft' with Duttenhofer and Lorenz, Maybach was appointed chief engineer. However, because of unacceptable terms of his contract he decided to leave the company in February 1891.

For the next year and a half Maybach worked out of his apartment and Gottlieb Daimler continued to provide financial support.

In the fall of 1892 development work, also supported financially by Daimler, began in the Hotel Hermann which yielded such important designs as the spray-nozzle carburetor and the Phoenix engine as well as improvements to elements of the belt drive system.

Pressure put on Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft by English industrialist Frederick Simms eventually led to Maybach being reinstalled as the company’s chief engineer in November 1895.

Once back Wilhelm first developed the tubular radiator with fan, then the honeycomb radiator; and this effective form of engine cooling opened the way to the development of the modern automobile.

The 'Roi des Constructeurs' - King of Designers, as the French called him, went from one technical achievement to another, creating the first four-cylinder automobile engine, and in 1898-99 a whole generation of engines consisting of five models producing between 6 and 23 hp.

During the years Wilhelm Maybach worked at Daimler-Motoren-Gesellshart he achieved many firsts.

Maybachs strongest point was the ability to combine individual solutions to create the complete concepts that turned engine-driven carriages into motorcars.

It was Emil Jellinek, who ran a large establishment in Nice, a city in southern France, who had good relations with international financiers and aristocrats, who promoted and sold Daimler's cars especially to the very rich.

In 1899, Daimler-Motoren-Gesellshart'already supplied ten cars to Jellinek and as many as 29 in 1900.

Jellinek continued to demand faster and more powerful cars from Daimler-Motoren-Gesellshart which he entered in race meetings – where he raced under a pseudonym, using his daughter's name Mercedes, he soon became known as 'Monsieur Mercédès' in the motoring circles.

In April 1900, the decision was made to use Mercedes as a product name. In addition, it was agreed that a new engine bearing the name Daimler-Mercedes was to be developed.

Maybach develops a race car using lightweight metals. It was fitted with a 35-hp four-cylinder engine featuring two carburetors. With honeycomb radiator, gear-only transmission and a very low center of gravity, this vehicle represents the car of the future.

This car was delivered to Jellinek by Daimler-Motoren-Gesellshart on December 22, 1900.

This first Mercedes, developed by Wilhelm Maybach, the chief engineer at Daimler-Motoren-Gesellshart caused quite a stir in the first year of the new century. With its low center of gravity, pressed-steel frame, light, high-performance engine and honeycomb radiator, it featured numerous innovations and is regarded today as the first modern automobile.

Jellinek ordered 36 of these cars at a total price of 550,000 marks - a sizable order even at today's equivalent value of DM 5.5 million. A few weeks later, he placed an order for another 36 cars, all with 8 hp engines.

The Nice week in March 1901, were the Mercedes cars were found to be unbeatable in virtually every discipline, attracted tons of publicity for Jellinek and the Mercedes.

In March and August 1901, the 12/16 hp and 8/11 hp sister models appeared. Jellinek’s orders soon stretched the Daimler plant in Cannstatt to full production capacity.

Mercedes was lodged as the trade name on June 23,1902 and legally registered on September 26.

Maybach's jem was his 1900 35 Horsepowed Mercedes where he combined two decades of his automotive engineering experience.

The car was rear-wheel and had a front-mounted four-cylinder engine -- partly made of light alloy -- and a three-speed transmission.

The Mercedes also featured a revolutionary low-to-the-ground design, setting it apart from the tall, clumsy looking cars of that period, as well as front wheels that were turned by a round steering wheel on an angled steering column.

The Mercedes truly represented a major turning point in the development of the automobile.

The first Mercedes is regarded as the first modern automobile. In 1901-02 a Mercedes car reaches 64.4 km/h to smash the world speed record and it was in 1903-04 that Maybach developed the first six-cylinder Mercedes. In 1906 Maybach designed an innovative 120-hp race engine with overhead intake and exhaust valves and dual ignition.

Of all his designs, Maybach created one of the most outstanding after Daimler's death in 1900: the Mercedes, which caused such a sensation at Nice Week in March 1901 because it was a vehicle that stood head and shoulders above anything previously conceived or built at Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft.

Both Wilhelm Maybach and Emil Jellinek get credit for the birth of the new car and for constantly challenging Maybach and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft to produce ever more powerful and faster cars.

However despite the great success of the Mercedes cars in the years that followed, Maybach was the victim of scheming behind his back. He was replaced as chief engineer and his activities were reduced to the level of an Inventors Office causing his acrimonious departure from Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1907, seven years after his close friend Gottlieb Daimler's death.

When the Zeppelin LZ 4 airship was destroyed in a storm in Echterdingen on August 5, 1908, Maybach offered to build Count Zeppelin a new, improved airship engine.

The resulting negotiations led to the creation on March 23, 1909 of Luftfahrzeug-Motorenbau-GmbH Bissingen". The technical manager was Wilhelm Maybach’s son Karl who also designed the new engine.

In 1912 the firm, renamed Luftfahrzeug-Motoren-GmbH, moved to Friedrichshafen. Both father and son held a 20% stake in the company however father Maybach placed the future of the business firmly in the hands of his son Karl.

After 1922 luxury cars were also produced in Friedrichshafen. One highlight of the product range was the 1929 Maybach 12 DS, the first automobile with a V12 engine and, along with its successor the Zeppelin, seen as the German answer to Rolls Royce.

Stuttgart's technical university presents Wilhelm Maybach with an honorary doctorate in 1916 and in 1929 Wilhelm Maybach died on December 29 in Stuttgart.

In 1996 Wilhelm Maybach was accepted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.