The first Mercedes car was a fabulous success. An engineering triumph and an elegantly designed car by any standards.
It's creator was a man of humble origins, Wilhelm Mayback, the team fellow of Gottlieb Daimler 1834-1900.
This Mercedes Car of 1901 captured the public's imagination.
It's creation, more than any previous motor vehicle, was the forerunner and pioneering achievement that was to be the prelude of all motor cars of the advancing century.
Gottlieb Daimler was the son of a baker in Schorndorf, Germany.
He served an apprenticeship in England as a student engineer, creating as a pièce d'etre a pistol with elegantly chased scrollwork.
Among other employers he worked for Whitworths of Birmingham,
who would set standards in precision machine tools throughout the industry.
We must acknowledge the efforts and business acumen of Frederick Simms who laid the foundations for the Mercedes Car industry in England.
However, without Wilhelm Maybach's genius, none of this may have transpired.
Maybach, at the age of nine, because of the early death of his parents, was placed in an orphanage.
By strange chance, Gottlieb Daimler, of a philanthrophic nature, visited the dwelling, and noticed the practical skills clearly evident in the young Maybach's work, and offered him employment.
This was to prove one of the most successful engineering partnerships of the century.
It can be added here, that the name "Mercedes" was the name of Maybach's daughter.