Bertha Benz

Bertha Ringer was born in Pforzheim, Germany on May 3rd, 1849 and was 23 when she married Karl Benz on July 20th, 1872. She passed away on May 5th, 1944, two days after celebrating her 95th birthday in Ladenburg in the state of Baden, where the family finally settled.

History is punctuated by the efforts of women who have made significant contributions to the life's work of their famous husbands. One such figure is Bertha Benz, the resolute lifetime companion of Karl Benz, the father of the automobile. Without her strong will and unshakeable belief in the success of her husband, the Benz company may never have prospered.

Bertha Benz gave her husband all the support she could, driving him on when the brilliant inventor and design engineer suffered serious technical setbacks and increasing self-doubt about the direction his life's work was taking. Her unflinching optimism and ability to find the best solution to difficult situations constantly saw her re-emerge from life's troughs.

Even during the engagement before her marriage to Karl Benz, Bertha made a determined and selfless decision that would prove essential to her husband-to-be. When it emerged that Karl Benz had been maneuvered into a nearly untenable financial situation by a business partner, Bertha Benz barely hesitated before prematurely offering her dowry. Although not a huge amount of money, it was enough to buy out the partner and secure all future decision-making powers for Karl Benz.

Although his work was constantly afflicted by one setback or another, Karl Benz was given strength by Bertha's unshakeable belief in him and his invention, On January 29th, 1886 he applied for a patent for his three-wheeler with a gasoline engine. This represented an important step for mankind, one in which Bertha Benz played a considerable role. The patent specification is recognized today as the birth certificate of the automobile.

Karl Benz went on to build further, perfected versions of his "patent motor car." Despite a mostly enthusiastic reception from the public, the commercial success he craved remained elusive. Once again he became racked with self-doubt, and again it was his wife who found a way out. She realized that the general public remained suspicious of the practicality and reliability of this driving machine, which people saw as powered by secretive, "devilish" forces.

The dynamic Bertha reasoned that the only way to convince people of the actual performance of the motor car was to prove it to them in practice. In the early hours of an August morning in 1888, without the knowledge of her husband, she set off in Karl's three-wheeler with the couple's two sons, Eugen (15) and Richard (14), on the journey from Mannheim to Pforzheim.

As darkness fell, the intrepid trio arrived safe and sound in Pforzheim. They then sent Karl a telegram to tell him that they had arrived and that the first long-distance journey undertaken in his motor car had been successfully completed. News of this sensational event spread like wildfire. Two children and a woman in a hissing, snarling horseless carriage - it had to be the work of the devil incarnate! Yet Bertha Benz had achieved what she had set out to do. The critics were won over by the reliability of the Benz motor car.

Karl Benz later wrote in his memoirs: "Only one person stood by me during those times when I was heading towards the abyss. That was my wife. With her bravery and courage she could always find new hope."