Inventing the Automobile

German Cars & the Autobahn

Course 1 · Chapter 2 · Inventing the Automobile

The 1880s were the decade in which a workable petrol-engined car appeared in Germany, and two men who never worked together, Carl Benz in Mannheim and Gottlieb Daimler with Wilhelm Maybach near Stuttgart, are usually named as its inventors. This chapter tells that story, including the famous drive of Bertha Benz, explains the engine that made it possible, and looks at the French makers who built the first car industry. It also separates the documented parts from the legends. Names and dates are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

The Engine First

The four-stroke principle

Nikolaus Otto built a successful four-stroke gas engine in the 1870s, which was sold for stationary use in workshops (check the date). The same four-stroke cycle later powered most cars.

A lighter engine

To power a vehicle, an engine needed to be light and to run on a liquid fuel, not on town gas. Daimler and Maybach, who had worked with Otto's firm, developed a small high-speed petrol engine in the 1880s (check).

Parallel work

Benz developed his own engine independently, with a different design. The two efforts were close in time and place but separate (check how little contact there was).

Benz and the Patent-Motorwagen

Point (check each)	Note
The inventor	Carl Benz (1844 to 1929) was an engineer who first built engines in Mannheim.
The vehicle	A three-wheeled carriage with a single-cylinder four-stroke petrol engine mounted at the rear, designed as a whole vehicle and not as a horse carriage with an engine added.
The patent	Applied for on 29 January 1886, which is often given as the "birth certificate" of the car (check the date and number).
First public use	Trials took place in Mannheim in 1886, and the vehicle was sold in small numbers from 1888 (check).
Reception	Public interest was limited at first, since the machine seemed a curiosity, and early customers often found it unreliable.

Bertha Benz's Drive

A famous journey, with some legend In August 1888, Bertha Benz, Carl's wife and business partner, drove one of the vehicles with her two teenage sons from Mannheim to Pforzheim, a distance of about 100 kilometres, reportedly without telling her husband beforehand (check). Along the way she is said to have bought a petroleum solvent at a pharmacist's in Wiesloch for fuel, had a blacksmith help with a chain, and had a cobbler fit leather to the brakes, which is often named as an early brake lining (check each detail). She sent a telegram when she arrived. The journey proved the car could go a long way and brought publicity. The outline is well documented; the details come from later retellings, and the popular version should be marked as such. A signposted "Bertha Benz Memorial Route" now follows the route (check).

Daimler and Maybach

1885. Daimler and Maybach built a wooden-framed two-wheeler with their engine, often called the first motorcycle (check).
1886. They fitted an engine to a horse-drawn carriage, producing a four-wheeled motor carriage (check).
The company. They formed Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1890 (check), selling engines for carriages, boats and industry as well as cars.
Maybach. Wilhelm Maybach (1846 to 1929) is credited with the carburettor and other improvements, and he later designed the Mercedes of 1901 (Chapter 3; check).

The French Contribution

Licences. The French firm Panhard et Levassor obtained rights to build Daimler engines around 1890 and made some of the first commercially successful cars (check).
Output. In the 1890s French makers, including Peugeot, built more cars than German ones, and early motor racing was mainly French (check the figures).
Why it matters. The car was an international invention, and German engineers supplied key technology while French firms led early production. This is why the claim "Germany invented the car" needs care (Chapter 1).

Diesel's Engine

Rudolf Diesel (1858 to 1913) patented a compression-ignition engine in the 1890s, and a working engine was demonstrated by 1897 (check the dates).
Use. It was first used in industry and ships, and passenger cars with diesel engines came much later (Chapter 10).
His death. Diesel disappeared from a ship crossing to England in 1913, and the cause is not established (check); an accident, suicide and murder have all been suggested, and the sources do not settle it.

A British comparison Early British motoring was held back by law. The Locomotive Acts of the 1860s limited speeds to a walking pace on public roads and required a person with a red flag to walk ahead, rules relaxed only in 1896, when the speed limit was raised to 14 mph and a London to Brighton run celebrated the change (check). Germany did not have a comparable bar, which is one explanation offered for the earlier start on the Continent, though it is only one of several (check).

Check the details Dates, specifications and the details of Bertha Benz's journey are from general knowledge and differ between sources, and company histories tend to tell the story in their own favour. Verify with museum sources, independent histories and the patent records.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Describe what was new about Benz's Patent-Motorwagen and why the patent of 1886 is given as the birth of the car.

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Exercise 2

Tell the story of Bertha Benz's drive in a few sentences, marking what is documented and what is likely to come from later retellings.

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Exercise 3

Explain how the French makers fit into the story of the car and why they complicate the claim that Germany invented it.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

Engine: Otto's four-stroke engine; Daimler and Maybach's light petrol engine (check)
Benz: Patent-Motorwagen, patent of 29 January 1886 (check)
Bertha Benz: Mannheim to Pforzheim, 1888 (check the details)
France: licences and early output led Germany in the 1890s (check)
The caution: company legends and "first" claims need sources