Gottlieb Daimler was born in Schorndorf on 17 March 1834. In addition to his studies at the grammar school in Schorndorf, he also attended drawing classes on Sundays. In 1848 Gottlieb Daimler began an apprenticeship as a gunsmith in Schorndorf. He finished his apprenticeship in 1852, presenting the required journeyman's piece he had created, a double-barrelled pistol. After a stay in France, where Daimler acquired practical experience in mechanical engineering, he attended the Polytechnical School in Stuttgart from 1857 to 1859. After working in diverse technical jobs in France and England he began to work as a technical draughtsman in the town of Geislingen in 1862. At the end of 1863 he became workshop at a factory of the Bruderhaus orphanage and school in the city of Reutlingen. Here he met Wilhelm Maybach in 1865.

On November 9, 1867 he married Emma Kurtz from Maulbronn. In 1869 he left Reutlingen to take up employ as workshop director at the Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft Karlsruhe. Three years later he changed to Otto und Langen as technical director of the Deutz Gasmotorenfabrik, where he became acquainted with the principle of the Otto four-stroke engine. After differences with the company management, he left the Gasmotorenfabrik in mid-1882.