Gottlieb Daimler

Daimler was married to Emma Kunz in 1867 and had two sons Adolf and Paul. The marriage lasted for more than twenty years until Emma’s death.

The renowned entrepreneur was suffering from heart disease at the end of 1880s. He went to Florence for treatment, where he met Lina Hartmann, his second wife.

Daimler died in 1889 due to his failing heart condition. It is said that a rough journey through bad weather accelerated his death.

Gottileb was born on 17th of March, 1834 in Schorndorf, Germany to Johannes Daimler, who was a baker and Frederika Daimler.

By the year 1847, he completed schooling from Lateinschule within a remarkably short duration of six years. Though his father wanted him to take up the job of a municipal employee, the young boy had different plans.

His interest in engineering landed him an apprenticeship job with the gunsmith Raithel, upon his graduation in the year 1852, after designing two double-barrelled pistols.

In the same year, at the age of 18, he decided to pursue mechanical engineering and moved on to the ‘Stuttgart’s School of Advanced Training in the Industrial Arts’.

In 1853, Gottlieb was accepted to the factory college where he impressed everyone with his performance and was inducted as a foreman when the company ‘Rolle and Schwilque’ embarked on manufacture of railway locomotives.

In 1861, when Daimler was convinced that the days of steam engine is fast approaching, he started concentrating on small low-powered engine.

He became the director of ‘Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft Karlsruhe’, the locomotive and railway wagon manufacturer, in 1869.

In 1872, he joined ‘Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz’, the Germany based engine manufacturer, in the position of a technical manager. Here he had a brief stint with Nikolaus Otto, the inventor of the four-stroke internal combustion engine. He also met Wilhelm Maybach, who was going to be a lifelong collaborator and friend.

In mid-1882, due to fallout with the management, he moved to Cannstatt and started an experimental workshop in his garden with the help of Maybach.

By the end of the year 1883, they developed the high-speed internal combustion engines, which they wanted to place in different types of locomotive devices. These engines were powered by gasoline.

In 1885, Daimler patented the hugely successful internal-combustion engines. It was a practical invention, as the engine was one of the first to have a dependable self-firing ignition system.

He was also responsible for manufacturing the four-wheeled automobile. In 1899, the first Mercedes car was manufactured from his own set-up, the Daimler Company.