An invention from Baden-Württemberg helped the car achieve its worldwide breakthrough 120 years ago. Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach developed the “grandfather clock” in 1885, the world’s first high-speed gasoline engine.
In 1886, Robert Bosch founded a workshop for precision mechanics and electrical engineering in Stuttgart, from which today's global corporation Bosch emerged. One of Bosch's most important inventions is a high-voltage magneto with a spark plug, which ensured reliable ignition of the gasoline-air mixture in combustion engines.