as a draftsman in Geislingen in 1862. At the end of 1863, he was appointed workshop inspector at a machine-tool factory in Reutlingen, where he met Wilhelm Maybach in 1865.

Throughout the 1930s, Mercedes-Benz produced the 770 model, a car that was notably popular throughout Germany's Nazi period. Adolf Hitler was known to have driven in a model of this car during his time in power, with modified custom bulletproof