page_title: Wilhelm Maybach
section_title: Daimler Motors: fast and small engines (1882)
hierarchical_section_title: Wilhelm Maybach / Daimler Motors: fast and small engines (1882)
caption_attribution_description: The very first motorcycle ever - named "Reitwagen" ("riding car") - was built by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. It was powered by a four-stroke one-cylinder engine with a displacement of 264ccm (58x100mm) and 0.5hp power output at 700rpm, with a top speed of 12km/h.
context_page_description: Wilhelm Maybach 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 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". The company joined the German war effort in 1940, ceasing automotive production in favour of tank engines, including those for the Tiger I and Tiger II heavy tanks.
context_section_description: 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.
caption: Replica of the Reitwagen
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