The Maybach DNA

The Maybach DNA stands for quality, precision, design, and legacy.

The May­bach DNA Mark­ers are an expres­sion of the icon­ic May­bach inno­va­tions, ground­break­ing achieve­ments in engi­neer­ing and design, as well as method­olo­gies that made May­bach an inno­v­a­tive pow­er­house in the 20th cen­tu­ry that laid the foun­da­tion for trav­el by land, air, and sea. The achieve­ments of Wil­helm & Karl May­bach have reshaped soci­ety, rev­o­lu­tion­ized mobil­i­ty, and set the ground for the qual­i­ty of life we enjoy today.

The May­bach DNA Mark­ers encap­su­late a his­to­ry of firsts. 12 Mark­ers have been iden­ti­fied as spe­cial­ly suit­ed to illus­trate and show­case this deep his­to­ry, mak­ing them the focal points of the May­bach Foundation’s her­itage work.

The Maybach DNA Markers:

By Land…

“The Train” show­cas­es an impor­tant piece of May­bach engi­neer­ing his­to­ry: the SVT Express Trains from the 1930s, which are con­sid­ered to be the world’s first high-speed trains. Replac­ing tra­di­tion­al steam engines with mod­ern May­bach high-speed diesel engines, the “Fly­ing Trains” paved the way for a new era of mobil­i­ty and travel.

Of course, Wil­helm and Karl May­bach had their fin­gers in many more inno­va­tions that rev­o­lu­tion­ized mobil­i­ty “by land”. Just to give you an idea:

Wil­helm got his start by devel­op­ing com­pact fast run­ning com­bus­tion engines (1883) which allowed him to effec­tive­ly pow­er the world’s first-ever motor­cy­cle: the “Reit­wa­gen” (1885). Just after the death of Got­tlieb Daim­ler, with whom he had coop­er­at­ed close­ly the years pri­or, Wil­helm May­bach then went on to con­struct the first-ever Mer­cedes: the “Mer­cedes Sim­plex” (1901). The Sim­plex and its rev­o­lu­tion­ary hon­ey-comb cool­er sys­tem laid the foun­da­tion for a new gen­er­a­tion of automobiles.

In the mid-1920s Karl, who had tak­en over from his father, shift­ed his focus towards the con­struc­tion of fast run­ning engines for trains with the objec­tive of allow­ing for smoother and faster trans­porta­tion than the exist­ing solu­tions. At the time, steam-pow­ered trains were still the sta­tus quo. What Karl man­aged to achieve can only be described as a dis­rup­tion of an entire indus­try: his so-called SVT trains (“Schnell­trieb­wa­gen mit Ver­bren­nungsmo­tor”) enabled pas­sen­gers to reach all major Ger­man cities with­in a day by reach­ing world-record speeds of 160 km/​h, there­by reshap­ing soci­ety forever.

„The Train“ by Michael Schwab
„The Train“ by Michael Schwab

…by Air…

“The Zep­pelin” encap­su­lates the inter­wo­ven­ness of advances in aer­i­al propul­sion and May­bach engi­neer­ing heritage.

This chap­ter of May­bach his­to­ry starts when one of Wilhelm’s ear­ly con­struc­tions is used to pro­pel the “LZ 1”, the first-ever air­ship pro­to­type devel­oped by Count Zep­pelin (1899). Short­ly after, how­ev­er, Wil­helm May­bach decides to leave the Daim­ler com­pa­ny lead­ing to him being banned from work­ing on the project. His son Karl, who had already prof­it­ed from a very good edu­ca­tion and the men­tor­ing received from his father, on the oth­er hand, worked on the devel­op­ment of a car engine for the French Count La Valette. This engine, which was meant to be pow­er­ful, smooth-run­ning, and reli­able was the per­fect prod­uct to offer to Count Zep­pelin who at the time was search­ing des­per­ate­ly for a more reli­able propul­sion sys­tem for his airships.

In 1909, the coöper­a­tion between May­bach and Zep­pelin, which proved to be high­ly suc­cess­ful over the years to come, offi­cial­ly kicked off. Over the course of the years, May­bach engines were fre­quent­ly used in air­ships and air­planes until the pro­duc­tion of aer­i­al propul­sion solu­tions comes to a halt at the end of WWI.

Con­trary to what one might assume, these restric­tions do not lead to the end of this chap­ter in May­bach engi­neer­ing. Instead, they lay the base for the gold­en era of air­ships, which is launched by the LZ 127 ‘Graf Zep­pelin’ in 1928. At this point, the asso­ci­a­tion with the Zep­pelin air­ships has become an inte­gral part of the May­bach Motoren­bau („May­bach Engine Com­pa­ny“) brand image.

The inter­con­nec­tiv­i­ty of May­bach and Zep­pelin is also reflect­ed in oth­er areas, for exam­ple, the May­bach high-end car mod­el fea­tur­ing a 12-cylin­der engine, lat­er dubbed the “May­bach Zep­pelin”, as well as the May­bach DS7 & DS8 which would also fea­ture “Zep­pelin” as part of their classification.

„The Zeppelin“ by Michael Schwab
„The Zep­pelin“ by Michael Schwab

…by Sea.

“The Yacht” high­lights the third ele­ment in which May­bach Engi­neer­ing paved the way for a new era of mobil­i­ty: water.

The three cor­ners of the orig­i­nal May­bach Motoren­bau ‘double‑M’ logo, are said to rep­re­sent the three ele­ments in which May­bach engines came to be used. While the impact on mobil­i­ty “by land” and “by air” is more obvi­ous, there are also sto­ries to be told about May­bach engines pow­er­ing boats & yachts.

Wil­helm May­bach and Got­tlieb Daim­ler were aware of the impor­tance of flex­i­bil­i­ty when devel­op­ing new prod­ucts. To no one’s sur­prise, in 1890 they were also the first to every motor­ize a boat. Lat­er on, Karl May­bach fol­lowed in his father’s foot­steps by strate­gi­cal­ly think­ing about the dif­fer­ent con­texts his new­ly devel­oped engines could & should be used in. For exam­ple, the first gen­er­a­tion of car engines in the 1920s, the ‘W Series’, was also offered in a vari­ant that was marinized, which meant that its com­po­nents were made to be fit for usage in water.

This idea lat­er man­i­fest­ed itself when Karl start­ed imple­ment­ing air­ship engines into yachts. One of the most inter­est­ing exam­ples is the OHEKA II (1927), which was built by Luerssen ship­yards for Otto Her­mann Kahn, one of the wealth­i­est men of his time. In order to com­mute to Man­hat­tan in a faster and smoother man­ner, he had three air­ship engines installed that com­bined for over 1200 horse­pow­er, mak­ing it the most pow­er­ful ship in its class.

Short­ly after WWII, May­bach engines once again dis­rupt­ed an indus­try: the ‘MD’ engines became the gold stan­dard on the mar­ket as the supe­ri­or fast-run­ning engines for boats, fer­ries, yachts, and the like. This lega­cy of tech­ni­cal excel­lence lives on to this day and can still be found in the motor­iza­tion of the world’s largest and most pow­er­ful yachts.

„The Yacht“ by Michael Schwab
„The Yacht“ by Michael Schwab

The remaining DNA Markers

Wilhelm Maybach & Gottlieb Daimler in their „Stahlradwagen“ (1889)
Wil­helm May­bach & Got­tlieb Daim­ler in their „Stahlrad­wa­gen“ (1889)

We have iden­ti­fied 12 May­bach DNA Mark­ers that rep­re­sent the icon­ic May­bach inno­va­tions, ground­break­ing achieve­ments in engi­neer­ing and design, as well as method­olo­gies that made May­bach an inno­v­a­tive pow­er­house in the 20th century.

Over the course of the com­ing weeks and months, we will con­tin­ue to devel­op the remain­ing nine mark­ers in a sim­i­lar man­ner as the Yacht, Zep­pelin, and Train pic­tured above. We’re look­ing for­ward to shar­ing these impor­tant chap­ters of May­bach his­to­ry and her­itage with you in the near future.