The "Maybach legend" was established by Wilhelm Maybach. He was born in Heilbronn on February 9, 1846. The vicar Gustav Werner and Gottlieb Daimler discovered the child’s talent at the boys’ orphanage in Reutlingen, supported him from an early age and had him trained as a technical draftsman and designer. Wilhelm Maybach was involved in the invention of the automobile, he designed the engine of the first Mercedes Simplex and later advanced to become the "King of Constructors".
Together with his equally talented son Karl, Wilhelm Maybach founded what was later to become the Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH in Bissingen/Enz in 1909, which manufactured high-performance engines for airships and aircraft. After World War I, Karl Maybach set up a production plant for top-of-the-range automobiles in Friedrichshafen. The luxury cars were manufactured to order up until the outbreak of World War II.
