Johann "Hans" Nibel (31 August 1880 – 25 November 1934) was a German mechanical engineer.
He was employed for more than a quarter of a century in positions of increasing influence at Benz and Cie and, after the 1926 merger, its successor entity, Daimler-Benz AG. He is best remembered for his time as Technical Director, a position he took over from Ferdinand Porsche following an acrimonious falling out between the company and Dr. Porsche. Between 1929 and 1934 Nibel was responsible for a succession of new Mercedes-Benz models of which, in commercial terms, the Mercedes-Benz W15, introduced in October 1931, was probably the most important. During the savage backwash from the Great Depression the W15 was relatively affordable, enabling the manufacturer to retain a major presence in the German auto market in a way that the large expensive cars with which Mercedes-Benz had increasingly been associated during the 1920s never could have done.
Life Provenance and early years Johann "Hans" Nibel was born into a Catholic family at Olleschau, Austria-Hungary (today Olšany in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic). He had one brother and two sisters. At that time, and until 1918, the entire region was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Nibel's father, also called Johann Nibel (1839–1914), was a factory director, probably of a paper factory. Through his father the boy was exposed to many of the finer points of the production technologies of those times from an early age. He was evidently a studious schoolboy. A surviving certificate from his school days dated 1899 classified him as "outstanding" in respect of Mathematics, Physics and Drawing, which hints at the specialisms that would best support him in his future career. He attended the Humanities Gymnasium in Šumperk, from where, having passed the necessary school final exams (Abitur), he moved on to enrol at the Technical University of Munich. Here he studied for a degree in engineering.
Benz & Cie AG He graduated with a "Diplom-Ingenieur" engineering degree. He obtained his first professional work experience working at a succession of relatively small engineering and manufacturing businesses, Armed with an excellent set of exam results, on 1 March 1904, still aged just 24, Hans Nibel joined the Mannheim main design office of Benz & Cie AG, which was already established as one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world. The first decade of the twentieth century was a period of rapid growth for the company, and in the design office Nibel's own career progressed even more rapidly. Through the development of a succession of successful racing and record breaking cars he became the recipient of various awards, and in 1908, only four years after joining the company, he was appointed to the position of "Chefkonstrukteur" ("Head of product development and design"). An early innovation under Nibel's management was the 1908 "head controlled motor", followed in 1910 by the four-valve engine. In 1911, under his leadership, the company produced a block-based engine and a dual ignition system. Although such features were initially applied on cars designed to race or break speed records, over the next couple of decades they would become increasingly mainstream across the automobile industry.
Beyond the automobile business, Nibel introduced improvements for the oil powered engine designed in Sweden by Jonas Hesselman and manufactured at the time by Benz under licence. At the other end of at least one spectrum, drawing inspiration from developments in the design of engines for racing cars, in 1909 he designed an aircraft engine, providing the impetus for the company to set up a new division to operate alongside its main automobile manufacturing business.
As far as the passenger car business was concerned, the period was characterised by two main trends in terms of broadening the range in both directions. A number of smaller models were introduced in order to increase the number of potential customers. A notable example was the 1910 launch of the four-cylinder Benz 6/14 PS. At the other end of the range, Benz continued to offer increasingly luxurious models, identified by admirers as "global ambassadors for the excellent cars from Mannheim". Then as now, for many people there was an obvious overlap in car design between luxury and speed. The name of Hans Mobel became particularly closely associated with the so-called "Blitzen Benz", which made its public debut in 1909. In April 1911 a Blitzen Benz driven by Bob Burman on the sands of Daytona Beach, averaging 228.1 kilometres per hour (141.7 mph) over a full mile. This represented a world land-speed record: it would remain unbroken till February 1919.
Like many pioneering engineers involved in the early decades of the automobile age in Europe, Nibel was also sometimes mentioned in news reports as a racing driver. However, when he did appear behind the wheel in a competitive event it was more often than not in the context not of an out an out speed trial, but of an endurance event such as the "Prince Heinrich Rally" or the "Carpathian Rally". Trophies collected by Nibel through his participation in motor sport included, in 1909, the Prize of the Crown Princess of Saxony following success, driving a Benz 20/35 PS in that year's "Prince Heinrich Rally", the "Silver Plate" for his performance in the 1912 "International Austrian Alpine Rally", and in 1914 the "Prize of the Minister for the Interior" following the "Carpathian Rally". Beyond the world of motorsport in 1912/13 Benz & Cie AG was awarded and received the prestigious (and lucrative) "Kaiserpreis" ("Emperor's Prize for the best German aircraft engine"), which was widely interpreted by colleagues and commentators as a personal achievement for Hans Nibel and his senior engineers.
Top management Hans Nibel's succession of achievements at the design office between 1904 was reflected in a series of promotions within the company hierarchy. In December 1911 or 1913 he was appointed a company "Prokurist", a senior management role conferring a significant measure of contractual capacity on the company's behalf.
War broke out in July 1914. As head of the design office Nibel had to make drastic changes at the company's premises in Mannheim-Waldhof and Gaggenau in order to adapt production to the needs of the military and at the same time to implement a large number of new development projects. On 16 August 1917, recognising his very considerable contribution to guiding the firm through the difficult war years, contribution, the company appointed him to a deputy membership on the company board of directors. During this time he was working with the Prosper L'Orange "oil-burner engines" (better viewed, in retrospect, as early forms of diesel engines), progressing to the point at which, soon after the war ended, Benz were already able to deliver simple engines as early as 1919, using this technology, for small industrial and agricultural engines . Another important development came in 1920 when Nibel, whose woe design efforts were still largely focused on racing cars at this stage, mandated Kurt Eltze (1878–1973) to set up the company's own production facility for injection pumps and nozzles to deal with "heavy fuel oil". Together the two men played a central role in turning "Benz and Cie AG" and its successor "Daimler-Benz AG" into world-leading pioneers in the use of diesel fuel for road vehicles. In 1922 Benz & Cie introduced a farm tractor with a self-combusting (through compression-induced spontaneous combustion) engine. It was the first road-capable diesel powered vehicle in the world. In 1923, under Nibel's direction, the first diesel powered road-going truck was presented by Benz. For the rest of his life and career he worked to sustain the company's pre-eminence in respect of diesel technology for road vehicles.
In September 1921, the Berlin AVUS opened, and the innovative Rumpler Tropfenwagen was at the Berlin Motor Show. This "Tear-drop car" pioneered "streamlining". Underneath the pioneering body shape there was more innovation, notably the "Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout", which in this case involved positioning the engine within the wheelbase behind the passenger compartment, with the driver placed in center front behind a curved wind screen. Nibel acquired a licence for the design from Rumpler that featured a (relatively conventional) rigid front axle, but matched up with Independent suspension rear wheels.
It was in 1922 that Nibel teamed up with his head of chassis design, Max Wagner, to produce the so-called "Benz-Tropfenwagen" race cars, that were open top and much lower than the tall Rumpler. Using a 2 litre engine without supercharger in the 1923 Italian Grand Prix, they finished 4th. The Benz-Tropfenwagen ensured international racing successes in the immediate time and placed Benz at the forefront of automobile chassis design during the years that followed.
On 25 August 1922 Hans Nibel, who had been a deputy member of the company's main board since 1917, became a full board member. This was also the year in which the institution known at that time as the "Technische Hochschule," (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) awarded him an honorary doctorate (Dr. Ing. h. c.) "in recognition of his great contributions to design/development and technology ("... in Anerkennung seiner großen Verdienste als Konstrukteur und Techniker").
Merger May 1924 saw the establishment of the "Interessengemeinschaft Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft und Benz & Cie“, a joint enterprise comprising the two companies "Benz and Cie AG" and "Daimler-Benz AG". There were many who saw the move as a precursor to fuller merger between the two companies, but there was also a tradition of rivalry to be taken into account. At the board level Hans Nibel was among the first to become convinced of the desirability of a full merger, and he was one of the most vigorous proponents of such a move. In this context it is unsurprising that he was appointed at once to the executive board of the newly created joint enterprise business. Meanwhile an effective programme of standardisation in respect of car design and production technologies was launched in order to enable Benz and Daimler models to compete more effectively in a crowded market place. Purchasing and sales activities were also harmonised, along with advertising, although at this stage each of the two brands retained a separate trade mark. The design and development offices were also merged. Nibel found himself working, as a colleague with his counterpart from Daimler, the brilliant - if, on occasion, "difficult" - Dr. Porsche. Somewhat confusingly, sources state that the two men worked "gleichberechtigt" (at the same level of authority) within the corporate structure although Porsche (who was five years older than Nibel), nevertheless "carried ultimate responsibility" for the department. It was only in 1926 that Nibel moved his own office from Mannheim-Waldhof to the (now shared) design and development office at Untertürkheim.
The merger between "Benz and Cie AG" and "Daimler-Benz AG" was finally concluded two years later, formally on 28 June 1926. The merger had been masterminded and choreographed by Wilhelm Kissel, who came from the commercial and administrative side of "Benz and Cie AG". Now even the trade mark - the "three pointed star" - was shared. From the operational side of the business Hans Nibel, whose enthusiasm for the merger had never dimmed, was naturally a founder board member of the new company, Daimler-Benz AG.