Вильгельм Майбах: Жизнь и вклад в развитие автомобилестроения и двигателестроения.

German engine designer and industrialist

Wilhelm Maybach (; 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". He died in 1929 and was succeeded by his son Karl Maybach. From around 1936 Maybach Motorenbau designed and made almost all the engines fitted in German tanks and half tracks used during World War 2, including those for the Panther, Tiger I and Tiger II heavy tanks. Continuing after the war, Maybach Motorenbau remained a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, 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. In 2014, Daimler announced production of an ultra luxury edition of the Mercedes Benz S Class under the new Mercedes Maybach brand.

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 1854 and his father in 1856. 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.

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.

In 1882, Maybach moved to Taubenheimstrasse in Cannstatt, Stuttgart, where Daimler had purchased a house with 75,000 goldmarks from his Deutz compensation. They added a brick extension to the glass fronted summer house in the garden, which became their workshop. Their activities alarmed the neighbours, who suspected they were engaged in counterfeiting. The police raided the property in their absence using the gardener's key, but found only engines.

In late 1883, Daimler and Maybach patented the first of their engines fueled by Ligroin. This engine was patented on 16 December 1883. It achieved Daimler's goal of being small and running fast enough to be useful at 750 rpm (soon after up to 900). Daimler had three engines built in 1884. Maybach persuaded him to put one in a vehicle, the result being the Reitwagen. In 1884, Maybach's second son Adolf was born.

In 1900, Maybach had his first contact with Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin who sought to improve the engines of the Zeppelin LZ1 airship. Maybach built some engines for him based on sketches of a 150 hp unit created by his son, Karl, while at DMG. In 1908, Count Zeppelin attempted to sell his models LZ3 and LZ4 to the government. On 5 August, LZ4 exploded against a row of trees after attempting an emergency landing when its engines failed. This was far from being the end for the airship project as 6.25 million goldmarks were raised in a donation campaign after the accident. Count Zeppelin founded the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH, the company that built the Zeppelin airships. Maybach had to hold off joining the new company for a while as he was still in litigation with DMG, so Karl took his place. On 23 March 1909, a deal was finally signed, creating an engine subsidiary to Luftschiffbau Zeppelin at Bissingen/Enz, in Württemberg. Wilhelm Maybach was Technical Assistant and Karl was Technical Manager. Their first designs reached 72 km/h (45 mph). Wilhelm Maybach moved his company to Friedrichshafen and renamed it Luftfahrzeug Motoren GmbH. Karl and Wilhem held 20% of the shares with an arrangement for Karl to inherit. They kept supplying Zeppelin, but worked on other airship engines too. In 1912, the company adopted the name Maybach Motorenbau GmbH (Maybach Engine Construction Company). In 1916, they developed a 160 hp aircraft engine which sold 2000 units before the end of World War I. In 1916, Wilhelm Maybach was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Technical University of Stuttgart.

His business, Maybach Motorenbau GmbH, continued in Friedrichshafen under his son Karl Maybach. From around 1935 Maybach made and designed almost all the engines for tanks and half tracks used by the German armed forces during World War 2. After 1945 it manufactured a full range of diesel engines. In the early 1960s Maybach began to construct large Daimler Benz engines in Friedrichshafen under a licence agreement and entered close collaboration with Daimler Benz. During the mid 1960s Maybach Motorenbau GmbH became Maybach Mercedes Benz Motorenbau GmbH and 83 percent owned by Daimler Benz. In 1998 Mercedes Benz announced what would prove to be a temporary revival of the Maybach brand for automobiles. Daimler AG currently produces an ultra luxury edition of the Mercedes Benz S Class under the Mercedes Maybach brand.

Wilhelm Maybach was accepted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1996. Three technical Schools in Germany are named Wilhelm Maybach: Stuttgart, Heilbronn, and Berlin Spandau. In 2002, Daimler AG began to produce models under the Maybach name. In 2005, in honor of his grandfather Karl and his great grandfather Wilhelm, Ulrich Schmid Maybach founded the Wilhelm and Karl Maybach Foundation.