For many people, getting in your car and driving 65 miles (105 km) is a fairly typical activity, especially if you’re visiting friends or family members in another town or city. Yet this had never been done until 1888, when Bertha Benz undertook what is now recognized as the first long-distance journey in an automobile with an internal combustion engine.
Bertha Benz was the wife of German engine designer Karl Benz, who is widely considered to have invented the first practical modern automobile. Throughout their marriage (and even before it), Bertha had been a major force in supporting her husband’s business ventures and helping him with some of the technical aspects of his industrial machines. Born into a relatively wealthy family, Bertha had used her dowry before their marriage to help Karl out of financial difficulties with his iron construction business and start Benz & Cie., a company making internal combustion engines. The success of this venture gave Karl Benz the time and money to pursue his true passion—developing a motorized “horseless carriage.”
Bertha fervently believed in Karl’s invention, which featured three wire wheels, a gas four-stroke engine, and a water-cooled internal combustion engine. With Bertha’s assistance, Karl completed this automobile, dubbed the “Benz Patent-Motorwagen,” in 1885. It was patented in January 1886 solely in Karl’s name, despite Bertha’s significant practical contributions.
Benz tested his vehicle on the roads near his Mannheim workshop and made several improvements over the next couple of years. The Benz Patent-Motorwagen Model 3 became the world’s first commercially available automobile, yet Karl Benz had little plan for marketing it to the public. At the time, many people feared automobiles or considered them fanciful toys rather than practical machines capable of cross-country travel. This was the moment when Bertha Benz undertook the road trip that made her famous—and made the Benz Patent-Motorwagen (and the many Benz vehicles that followed) a success.
In the early hours of August 5, 1888, Bertha and her two teenage sons, Richard and Eugen, set out from their home in Mannheim with a plan to drive to Pforzheim (Bertha's birthplace) in a Model 3, ostensibly to visit Bertha’s mother. The most popular version of the story is that Bertha undertook the journey without Karl’s knowledge, hoping to garner publicity for the automobile as a useful means of transportation.
The journey was not without incident. The trio had to stop at the Stadt-Apotheke pharmacy in Wiesloch to purchase ligroin, a petroleum solvent that fueled the car (giving the pharmacy, which still exists, a claim to fame as “the world’s first filling station”). Famously, Berth Benz is said to have used a hat pin to clear a blocked fuel line and a garter to insulate a wire. During the drive, she also had to enlist the help of a blacksmith to fix a chain and a cobbler to install leather brake linings. Bertha, Richard, and Eugen constantly added water from nearby streams to cool the engine, and the boys had to help push the car up the hills. Yet by the end of the day, they had reached Pforzheim, where Bertha sent Karl a telegram about the successful journey.
As Bertha had intended, their return trip three days later (over a less hilly route) was widely covered by the press and attracted significant attention for the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Between Bertha’s road trip and the appearance of the Model 3 at the 1889 World's Fair, the Patent-Motorwagen was heading for commercial success, making Benz & Cie. the world’s largest automobile company at the end of the 19th century.
The husband-and-wife team behind the automobile:
- Bertha’s journey was not only dangerous but also illegal, as she did not have permission to take an automobile on the local roads. She drove the car on tracks used by horse-drawn carriages with four wheels, which meant that the automobile, which had just one wheel in front, was constantly bumping over rocks and sticks.
- Her navigational skills were also undoubtedly impressive, as there were very few signposts along the way (perhaps necessitating asking for directions numerous times).
- Upon her return to Mannheim after her drive, Bertha gave Karl a detailed report about the experience and improvements that could be made to the vehicle, such as adding another gear to help climb hills and making brake pads a standard component.
- In 2008, Germany designated the “Bertha Benz Memorial Route” as an official tourist route between Mannheim and Pforzheim, at the entrance to the Black Forest, which largely follows the stops Bertha made during her journey.
- Bertha Benz was finally inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2016, 42 years after her husband.
