The Freedom Tower

“There must be more to life than this, figured Ulrich Schmid-Maybach, great-grandson and heir of legendary luxury-car designer Wilhelm Maybach, as he sat in a Cannes hotel room four years ago,” Bloomberg News Service reports.

“That’s when the urge hit him to use some of his family’s millions to help others less fortunate, Schmid-Maybach, 47, said during a recent interview in New York.

In 2006, he launched the Wilhelm & Karl Maybach Foundation in San Francisco, where he was born and raised, and started a mentoring program for young adults interested in careers ranging from the arts to science and medicine.

This fall, he extended the charity’s reach to help young photographers from disadvantaged backgrounds document the rebuilding of the World Trade Center in New York.

“We looked particularly for those who had faced adversity of some kind who need to be connected to people who can help them,'’ Schmid-Maybach said. “Poverty and talent aren’t mutually exclusive.'’