Bertha Benz earns her spot in automotive history

Completing the roll call of women who are enshrined in the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Mich., is Bertha Ringer Benz (1849-1944), who was inducted in 2016. 

She and her husband, Carl Benz (1844-1929), were German automotive pioneers who made their mark in the late 1880s. They were kingpins in the early development of the Mercedes-Benz brand that has endured for centuries. 

Carl was voted into the hall of fame in 1984. The Benzes are the only husband-and-wife team among the hall of fame’s nearly 300 honorees. 

Carl Benz is widely credited with inventing the internal-combustion engine in 1885 and is regarded as one of the greatest automotive engineers of all time. Bertha Benz provided the capital to get the company going, investing her entire dowry. 

According to information posted on the Mercedes-Benz website, when Bertha was born in 1849, very few German women were allowed access to higher education. Scientists in that day said “the lighter brain of a woman was logically unable to absorb and process as much information. Moreover, thinking too much was harmful to one’s child-bearing ability.” 

Bertha deemed that line of thinking as a load of codswallop. She was motivated “to show the world that the female sex is also capable of great things,” the essay continued. 

Benz’s first horseless carriage was a single-cylinder, 2.5-horsepower car with three wheels – one in front and two in the back – and could reach a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour. In addition to the driver, the Motorwagen could carry two passengers. There was one problem…a lack of buyers. 

Bertha appointed herself as chief marketing officer. Her task was to spark public interest in the Motorwagen as an innovative “means of personal transportation.” 

Early in the morning on an August day in 1888, Bertha and her two oldest sons, Eugen and Richard (both teenagers), slipped into Carl’s workshop while he was still sleeping and rolled one of the Motorwagens out the garage door. Bertha left a note on the kitchen table informing her husband that they were off on a little journey to see her mother who lived about 60 miles away. 

Bertha and the boys pushed the vehicle down the road for some distance, so that Carl would not be awakened when Bertha brought the engine to life. They embarked on what would be the first long-distance journey ever taken by automobile – traveling from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back – to show the world what the Benz Motorwagen could do.

 

The trip was dusty, rocky and bumpy. Bertha was the pilot and the mechanic. The trek required several “pit stops” for repairs and refueling. 

A pharmacy in Wiesloch, about 16 miles outside of Mannheim, unexpectedly became the world’s first “filling station.” The Motorwagen ran on ligroin, a petroleum product that was also sold as a cleaning fluid. 

An elderly pharmacist questioned Bertha’s request to purchase his entire stock of “10 litres” of ligroin. He said: “One litre will be plenty to remove the stains on your dress, madam.” 

She persevered. The traveling time to her mother’s place was 12 hours. The pace was 5 miles per hour. The trip received a great deal of attention, just as Bertha had intended. 

After visiting with her mother for several days, Bertha set out for her return trip, following a different route and introducing her husband’s automobile to even more people before arriving home safely. 

An avalanche of publicity resulted in an immediate flood of new orders for the Benz Motorwagen.

Carl Benz