Produkte

Carl Benz (1844 – 1929)  

In 1885, Carl Benz built the first "automobile" in his Mannheim workshop located in T6, 11, which he founded with his partner, August Ritter, in 1871. He designed a "patented motor vehicle" with a four-stroke combustion engine (Otto motor), for which he received a patent from the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin on January 29, 1886. His two-stroke combustion engines, which were previously manufactured until then, were not suitable for installation in his (self-propelled) "automobile". It was the first German "patented motor vehicle", a tricycle construction, registered under the patent number 37435.

The engine, a one-cylinder, four-stroke engine, had a 984 cc sized engine which turned at 400 RPM, delivered 0.9 HP and had a water-cooled system. The maximum speed was 15 kilometres per hour. Carl Benz used "Ligroin", which was actually a stain removing fluid then available in pharmacies, to fuel the vehicle; later on, "benzine" (benzene) was used.

Today, Carl Benz is considered the inventor of the first combustion engine propelled "automobile". This was capable of transporting several persons and reaching a long-distant destination. His wife Bertha and their sons, Eugen and Richard, were able to cover the distance between Mannheim and Pforzheim in August 1888, where they visited their grandmother. Already in 1894, Model 3 was manufactured. By then, the "Benz & Co. Rhenish Combustion Engine Manufactory" in Mannheim-Neckarstadt, Waldhofstrasse already had 200 employees.

In 1903, Carl Benz left the company after having an argument (it is said to have been in regard to technical issues and decisions) with his co-owner Julius Ganss. However, he continued to be a member of the company's Board of Directors until his death in 1929.

In 1906, Carl Benz founded his own automobile manufactory together with his oldest son Eugen, in Ladenburg in the vicinity of Mannheim. Parts for the "Actros" model truck production were still manufactured here up until 2004. Today, the "Dr. Carl Benz Automobile Museum" can be admired in this former workshop. Carl Benz passed away on April 4, 1929. His grave is located in Ladenburg.

In Stuttgart, Gottfried Daimler received a patent for his "fast running combustion engine" in 1883. This propelled a "rider vehicle", otherwise known as today's motorcycle. In 1890, he founded the Daimler Motors Corporation in Stuttgart. Both factories (whose owners never personally met each other) were consolidated in 1926, to form the "Daimler Benz Corporation".

Source:
"Carl Benz", subheading: "A Story from Baden"
Winfried A. Seidel, Publishing House Diesbach Editions, 69469 Weinheim, 2005
Photo: Klara Benz, around 1895, Model "Velo"
With permission of the Dr. Carl Benz Automobile Museum, Ladenburg

Mannheimer Quadrate

Mannheimer Wasserturm

Carl Benz

Freiherr von Drais