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 in Karlsruhe on November 25, 1844, the son of a locomotive driver. His interest in technology and the natural sciences began at an early age. After leaving school, this led Benz to study at the Polytechnic in Karlsruhe and pursue a career as an engineer. While still a student, 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 factory in the world. But not only that, many of Carl Benz's inventions paved the way for the automobile in the first place. These include, for example, the Ackermann steering, the gearshift and the surface carburetor, as well as the two-stroke and four-stroke engine. These are all groundbreaking inventions without which the automobile would never have learned to run.
The Benz Patent Motor Car - the dream of the "horseless carriage
In order to realize his dream of the "horseless carriage", Benz starts building a motor car a few years after his studies and first job. Unlike Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, who used engines in a variety of ways, Benz focused primarily on the motor car unit.
In January 1886, Carl Benz is granted a patent for the first roadworthy Benz motor car - the automobile is born! The car is a somewhat strange vehicle, which consists mainly of bicycle parts. It has only three wheels made of wood with rubber coating, a small steering wheel and an engine mounted behind the wide bicycle seat.
Despite the patent, the long-awaited success for the Benz Patent Motor Car initially failed to materialize. On the contrary, Benz earns only scorn and derision during the first test drive. Only the legendary Bertha Benz long-distance drive brings the resounding triumph. When her husband's years of hard work don't meet with the response she had hoped for, Bertha Benz acts: Together with her two sons, she drives the Benz Motor Car from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back again on a summer's day in August 1988. In doing so, she demonstrates 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 was celebrated at the Trade and Industry Exhibition in Munich and, a year later, at the Paris World's Fair. The age of the automobile had dawned.
European high society discovers the novel vehicles and celebrates the first automobile races as major social events. This marked Benz's decisive move into series production. In 1893 he already sells 69 vehicles, 54 of which go abroad. Another five years later, Carl Benz is well on the way to becoming the world's largest automobile manufacturer with the Benz & Cie. company - by now Benz is selling up to 750 cars a year. But the competition never sleeps - in Cannstatt near Stuttgart, Gottlieb Daimler launches the first Mercedes. The world is thrilled and Benz has to fight for his supremacy.
Two inventors put the same idea into practice
It's a crazy story - two gifted inventors put their idea into practice almost at 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.
An interesting historical fact: Despite the merger of the two companies, Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler never met. Gottlieb Daimler died as early as 1900, while Carl Benz himself witnessed the rise of motorization and the breakthrough of his idea.
