Friedrich Geiger (24 November 1907 – 13 June 1996) was a German automobile designer which designed the pre-World War II Mercedes-Benz 540K and post-war Mercedes-Benz 300SL which are among the most highly regarded cars in automotive history.
Born in Süßen in the Swabian region of southern Germany, Geiger originally trained as a cartwright, before studying as a design engineer at University prior to joining Daimler-Benz in April 1933.
He began in the special vehicles manufacturing department, where, in the 1930s, he was responsible for the 500K and 540K sports cars.
Geiger left Daimler-Benz in April 1948, but returned to the company two years later, this time as a test engineer in the styling department.
[1][2] Geiger continued to work at Daimler-Benz until his retirement in December 1973, by which time he had helped create the W111/W112 (1959) and W110 (1961) "Fintails", the W113 "Pagoda" (1963) and R107 (1971) SL coupé/convertibles, the W108/109 (1965) and W116 (1972) series of the S-Class, and the Mercedes-Benz 600 limousine (1963).