Carl Benz and the birth of the automobile
What does it take to turn an idea that hardly anyone believes in into reality? Carl Benz pursued his dream of a "horseless carriage" with technical pioneering spirit and extraordinary perseverance. His moving journey from engineer to inventor shows how his vision gave rise to the first automobile and why Benz is considered the father of the automobile.
Carl Benz - one of the greatest inventors and visionaries of all time
Carl Benz is considered one of the greatest inventors and visionaries of all time. He was born on November 25, 1844, in Karlsruhe, Germany, the son of a locomotive engineer. From an early age, he was interested in technology and the natural sciences. After finishing school, this led Benz to study at the Polytechnic Institute in Karlsruhe and pursue a career as an engineer. Even during his studies, Carl dreamed of one day building a “horseless carriage” – a completely utopian idea at the time.
What did Carl Benz invent?
Carl Benz was the inventor of the automobile and one of the founding fathers of today's Daimler AG, the oldest automobile manufacturer in the world. But that's not all: many of Carl Benz's inventions paved the way for the automobile in the first place. These include, for example, the kingpin steering system, the gearshift, the surface carburetor, and the two-stroke and four-stroke engines. These are all groundbreaking inventions without which the automobile would never have learned to run.
The Benz Patent Motor Car – the dream of a “horseless carriage”
In order to realize his dream of a “horseless carriage,” Benz began building a motor car a few years after
completing his studies and starting his first job. Unlike Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, who
used engines for a variety of purposes, Benz focused primarily on the motor car.
In January 1886, the time had come: Carl Benz received the patent for the first roadworthy Benz motor car – it
was the birth of the automobile! The car was a somewhat strange vehicle, consisting mainly of bicycle parts. It
had only three wooden wheels with rubber tires, a small steering wheel, and an engine mounted behind the wide
bicycle seat.
Despite the patent, the long-awaited success of the Benz Patent Motor Car initially failed to materialise. On
the contrary, Benz reaped nothing but ridicule and scorn during the first test drive. Only the legendary Bertha Benz long-distance drive brought the
resounding triumph. When her husband's many years of hard work did not meet with the hoped-for approval, Bertha Benz took action: together with her two
sons, she drove the Benz motor car from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back again on a summer's day in August 1988.
In doing so, she proved to the whole world the suitability and functionality of the Benz Patent Motor Car.
Carl Benz on the way to series production
In the same year, the Benz Patent Car is celebrated at the Trade and Industrial Exhibition in Munich and a year
later at the Paris World Exhibition. The age of the automobile had dawned.
European high society discovered the new vehicles and celebrated the first motor races as major social events.
For Benz, this signalled the decisive path to series production. In 1893, he sold 69 vehicles, 54 of which went
abroad. Another five years later, Carl Benz was well on the way to becoming the largest car manufacturer in the
world with Benz & Cie. - the Benz company was now selling up to 750 cars a year. But the competition never
sleeps - Gottlieb Daimler launches the first Mercedes in Cannstatt near Stuttgart. The world is thrilled and
Benz has to fight for its supremacy.
Two inventors put the same idea into practice
It's a crazy story - two gifted inventors put their idea into practice at almost the same time. One in Ladenburg
near Mannheim, the other in Bad Cannstatt near Stuttgart. Both ran their factories for 40 years, sometimes with
more, sometimes with less success, when the two companies decided to merge in the face of the looming economic
crisis. In 1926, the two companies Benz & Cie. and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft merged.
Interesting historical fact: Despite the merger of the two companies, Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler never met.
Gottlieb Daimler died in 1900, while Carl Benz lived to see the upswing in motorisation and the breakthrough of
his idea.
