TravelWorld International Magazine Fall 2022

Undated
historical photo
of Bertha Benz,
the world’s
first dominated
woman driver
and driver of a
long-distance
road trip.
Courtesy Bertha
Benz Memorial
Route.
One of ten certified hand-made replicas of the original
Dr. Carl Benz “Patent-Motorwagon” produced by
Mercedes-Benz to commemorate the company’s recent
100th anniversary, on display at the Midwest Dream Car
Collection in Salina, Kansas. This is the model Bertha
Benz drove on her history-making road trip between
Mannheim and Pforzheim, commemorated as the Bertha
Benz Memorial Route. Photo courtesy of the museum.
The Bertha Benz
Historical Road Trip in Germany
Story and Photos by Evelyn Kanter
Today, she would be a successful blogger,
influencer and videographer. Then, she
was just a housewife hoping her husband’s
new business would succeed.
She was Bertha Benz, wife of the
mechanical engineer who had invented and
patented the world’s first “vehicle with gas
engine” in 1886. Dr. Carl Benz was building
them, but they weren’t selling.
One day, she piled two of their children
into one of his contraptions and set off on
a 130-mile round-trip journey from home
in Mannheim to Pforzheim, where her
mother lived. It doesn’t matter if she just
wanted to get out of the house or if she
knew instinctively that her escapade would
kick-start sales, but it made her a pioneer
and an inventor, like her husband.
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It was the first documented drive by
a woman and the first road trip by
anybody. She was followed by cheering
crowds attracted by minute-to-minute
updates telegraphed by newspapers.
She made history, and Carl later said
she popularized the automobile,
even though they scared horses and
pedestrians. Within a decade, business
was booming, and so was our non-stop
worldwide love affair with cars.
Engineer Carl incorporated Bertha’s
road trip discoveries into his vehicles,
making them safer and more efficient.
She recognized that brakes would need
a liner to prevent overheating, and
suggested he add gears for climbing
up and down hills. That’s in her 1890
version of a blog, known as a diary.
Germany has honored her original drive
as The Bertha Benz Memorial Route,
with historical markers and designated
stops. It took her one full day each way
to negotiate the rutted roads carved
by horse-drawn carriages, but it took
me longer, even on fully paved roads,
since there’s so much to see and do in a
combination of sleepy small towns and
bustling cities.
Plaque on Town Pharmacy in Wiesloch,
Germany, acknowledging its history as
the world’s first refueling stop. Placed
there in 1990, the 100th anniversary of
the headline-making 130-mile round trip
by Bertha Benz and two of her children,
between Manheim and Pforzheim.