As of: 23.09.2021 8:23 a.m.
Exactly 100 years ago, the automobile manufacturer Maybach presented its first car for sale. The company’s history began in a completely different industry.
For many, it is the epitome of luxury: the Maybach. A car that is rarely seen on our streets. And a car whose eventful history hardly anyone knows. It began in March 1909 when Wilhelm Maybach and Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin founded the company Luftfahrzeug-Motorenbau in Bissingen an der Enz.
Their plan: to build diesel and gas engines for airships. A short time later, the company moved to Friedrichshafen, where it built engines that were so advanced that the military became interested in them. They were built into airships and fighter planes for the First World War.
War defeat forces Maybach to change
After the German Empire lost the First World War, the Versailles Peace Treaty forbade the building of airplanes and airships. Wilhelm Maybach was forced to rethink. Together with his son Karl, he renamed the company Maybach-Motorenbau. Diesel engines were still being built for locomotives – such as for the Flying Hamburger, the world’s first high-speed train. From now on, however, Maybach was mainly concerned with building cars.
After the W 1 test car was developed in 1919, it presented the ready-to-sell W 3 at the Berlin Motor Show on September 23, 1921 – the beginning of an era.
The Maybach engines were characterized by the fact that they were not only powerful, but also world-class in terms of technology. The claim of the son of the company founder Karl Maybach: “To present the best of the best”. The interior fittings and bodies were built by leading manufacturers according to customer requirements.
Every customer request was fulfilled: an SW38 in the museum for historic Maybach vehicles in Neumarkt.
Image: Museum of Historic Maybach
Success – until World War II
“Order files were sometimes 50 or 60 pages long before the customer said: ‘So, now it fits’. That sums of money came out that could have been used to buy a villa on Stuttgart’s Killesberg”, says Helmut Hofmann, operator of the Museum for historical Maybach vehicles in Neumarkt.
The clientele was exquisite: the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, the Dutch royal couple, Indian maharajas and the German boxing world champion Max Schmeling were among them. By 1941 around 1,800 sedans, touring cars and sports convertibles with the famous emblem from the double M had been built.
During the war, the engines were then needed for the vehicles of the Wehrmacht. Nobody needed luxury cars after the war. In addition, the factory in Friedrichshafen had been destroyed and was later only used for repair work on the cars. It was quiet around the Maybach car brand.
Maybach’s supporting role at Mercedes
It took almost twenty years for Maybach to play a role again: In 1960, Daimler-Benz bought the Maybach-Motorenbau company. Since 1969 the company has been called Motoren und Turbinenunion Friedrichshafen, or MTU Friedrichshafen for short. Diesel engines have been built there ever since.
It would be decades before cars with the Maybach emblem rolled off the production line: DaimlerChrysler AG only rediscovered Maybach in 2002. “Other car manufacturers like VW and BMW had bought luxury brands. At Daimler, they thought: We still have the trademark rights of Maybach. Then they did a lot of advertising. That led to a little hype,” says museum operator Hofmann.
However, reactivating the brand for Daimler did not work out well. The 57 and 62 models were based on older S-Class models – and many customers appeared to be out of date. “In addition, they couldn’t start with the Maybach name as much as, for example, with Rolls Royce,” says Hofmann. Expenditure and income did not pay off; At the end of 2011, it was decided to crush the Maybach brand again. In 2013 the supposedly last car rolled off the assembly line.
Maybach’s future on shaky legs?
Just a year later, there was another U-turn: Now Mercedes decided to reintroduce the Maybach as Mercedes-Maybach for premium versions of the S-Class and other models. The Concept EQS was presented last. The first premium-class electric car – 100 years after the W 3.
For the Maybach museum operator Hofmann, however, one thing is clear: “I think the good old days of Maybach are over, when you made this huge effort for individual customers.” But he can imagine that the Maybach name will live on in the premium automobile segment.