August Wilhelm Maybach

February 2011 would have marked the 165th birthday of German entrepreneur and automotive engineer August Wilhelm Maybach. He was born in Heilbronn on 9 February 1846.

At eight, he moved with his family from Löwenstein, Württemberg, to Stuttgart. Three years later, he was fully orphaned. He spent the next thirteen years in a Reutlingen institution educating poor orphans. There he trained as a draughtsman and designer and met Gottlieb Daimler, director of the engineering factory supporting the institution. Daimler noticed his technical promise. Maybach became his assistant and accompanied him throughout Germany.

In 1878, he married Bertha Wilhelmine Habermas (1851–1931), daughter of a postmaster who also kept an inn. Sons Karl and Adolf were born in Cologne, followed later by daughter Emma.

In the late nineteenth century, he worked closely with Daimler on internal combustion engines. As technical director of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, he contributed substantially to the first car.

In 1900, he designed a Mercedes for Austrian businessman and consul-general Emil Jellinek. The result was a racing car with two carburettors and a 35 hp four-cylinder engine. Its advanced design included notable gearbox and cooling innovations. It was named after Jellinek’s daughter, Mercedes.

In 1904, he developed his first six-cylinder engine, producing 70 hp. Two years later came a more powerful racing engine: 120 hp, overhead intake and exhaust valves, an overhead camshaft and dual ignition brought him recognition.

In 1909, he and his son Karl founded Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH in Bissingen an der Enz. It made Zeppelin engines and later luxury cars in Friedrichshafen.

He received an honorary doctorate from Stuttgart’s technological institute in 1916. He died in Cannstatt in 1929 and was buried beside Daimler at Uff-Kirchhof. The modern Maybach brand belongs to Daimler AG.