Before ‘cars’ were cars, Bertha Benz took the drive that changed everything

Bertha Benz took the drive that changed everything for the car brand as she backed her husband’s creation.

Mercedes-Benz is the oldest car manufacturer in the world, thanks to founder Carl Benz’s clever mind.

Dating back to the 1800s, the brand has a huge fleet of powerful vehicles that all stem from the first car.

However, few people actually know about Benz’s biggest cheerleader, who made the most important journey in the brand’s history – his wife.

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Bertha Benz took the journey that changed the car world forever

The car industry is full of manufacturers trying to prove why they are the best, but for one car maker, things were different from the very start.

Mercedes-Benz’s journey dates back to the 1800s, but not many people are aware of the real driving force behind Carl Benz: his wife Bertha Benz.

In fact, Bertha undertook the world’s first long-distance journey in an automobile way back in 1888.

Up until this point, people had expressed doubt about his idea, but not Bertha.

When Benz filed the patent for his first motorcar, she took matters quite literally into her own hands.

In fact, without him knowing, she took his motorcar and roped in her two sons, Eugen, 15, and Richard, 13, to take a drive to the town of Pforzheim in Germany.

Their journey lasted more than 12 hours and spanned over 100km, all while tackling dirt roads – no blacktop back then.

She took it all in her stride as she made history. She even helped establish the first gas station, but more on that later.

The first auto was extraordinary

As you can imagine, the ‘Model 3 Motorwagen’ that Bertha and her two sons jumped in required a unique level of maintenance.

Before the iconic gas station moment occurred, other steps had to be taken.

In fact, the first Benz needed to be refilled with water regularly to enable cooling features, which seems standard, right?

Well, of course, the engine was quite literally fueled by a 1.3-gallon tank, which needed to be topped up regularly.

This forced Bertha to stop in the village of Wiescloch and ask the local apothecary for Ligroin, which in those days was known as a petroleum ether that was often used for cleaning.

In turn, this played a part in the petrol-powered automobile taking off, and the first ever gas station was born.

The journey also saw the creation of the first-ever brake linings after Bertha noticed that the blocks of wood that formed the brakes wore down at an alarming rate.

So, a local shoemaker in the next village fastened some leather patches to the wood to act as a barrier to the sheer amount of friction.

It seems Bertha really did hit the ground running and quite literally took matters into her own hands when it came to believing in her husband.

Not many people are aware, though, of how the first car’s origin shows just how powerful a woman in the 1800s could be.

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