Bertha Benz Memorial Route - the first long-distance journey by automobile.
What is the Bertha Benz Memorial Route all about, who was Bertha Benz anyway and how was she connected with the first long-distance trip in an automobile? We have investigated all these questions in the following text.
Who was Bertha Benz?
Bertha Benz was born Cäcilie Bertha Ringer in Pforzheim in 1849 and at the age of 23 married Carl Benz, an engineer and inventor who was still unknown at the time. Without her strong will, the Benz & Cie. company and the automobile might never have existed. Thanks to Bertha's unwavering faith in her husband and his inventive spirit, Carl Benz continued his work as a designer time and again, despite setbacks that occurred.
The Benz Patent Motor Car - the world's first automobile
On January 29, 1868, Carl Benz applied for a patent for his Motorwagen - it was the world's first automobile. At first, the new means of transportation met with deep skepticism. There was still no proof that the Benz Patent Motorwagen could function reliably and cover longer distances.
This prompted Bertha Benz to take the Patent Motor Car for an extended test drive. In doing so, she not only wanted to encourage her husband, but also to prove to the world that the future would belong to the "horse-less carriage". The destination of her drive was Pforzheim, her birthplace.
The Bertha Benz ride - 194 km of pioneering work
It was August 1888, and the school vacations had just begun when an adventurous journey - the Bertha Benz ride - went down in automotive history. Bertha Benz and her sons Eugen and Richard set off from Mannheim to Pforzheim in her husband's motor car.
They had to use roads that did not do justice to this designation at the time. The three drove most of the more than 194 km route over stony dirt roads. From Ladenburg to Heidelberg, Bertha Benz followed the dead-straight Roman road. From Heidelberg, the route took the former Via Montana in the direction of Karlsruhe, today's Bergstrasse. Shortly before Karlsruhe, the three pioneers then turned off into the Pfinztal valley in the direction of Pforzheim. That same evening, Carl Benz received the news from his wife: "Pioneering work successful"!
For the return trip, Bertha Benz chose the route via Bretten so as not to have to drive downhill in the opposite direction to the steep inclines of the outward journey. From Bruchsal it went then over Schwetzingen to Mannheim, whereby it followed with Kirrlach again many kilometers of a Roman road, which leads still today dead straight by the forest.
The Bertha Benz Route in detail
The Bertha Benz Route from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back to Mannheim totaled about 194 km and passed through numerous cities, districts and small towns:
| Outward - about 104 km to the south | Return - about 90 km to the north |
|---|---|
| Mannheim | Pforzheim |
| Feudenheim | Bauschlott |
| Ilvesheim | Bretten |
| Ladenburg | Gondelsheim |
| Schriesheim | Helmsheim |
| Dossenheim | Heidelsheim |
| Heidelberg | Bruchsal |
| Leimen | Forst |
| Nußloch | Hambrücken |
| Wiesloch | Wiesental |
| Mingolsheim | Kirrlach |
| Langenbrücken | Reilingen |
| Stettfeld | Hockenheim |
| Ubstadt | Talhaus |
| Bruchsal | Ketsch |
| Untergrombach | Schwetzingen |
| Weingarten | Friedrichsfeld |
| Grötzingen | Seckenheim |
| Berghausen | Mannheim |
| Söllingen | |
| Kleinsteinbach | |
| Wilferdingen | |
| Königsbach | |
| Stein | |
| Eisingen | |
| Pforzheim |
The Bertha Benz ride - Breakdown with hatpin and garter
Of course, the trip was not without incident. The roads were bumpy and hilly. Already before Wiesloch the first pitfalls began, the gasoline flow was clogged. A hatpin had to provide assistance and when the ignition failed, the garter served as a roadside assistance.
Uphill, Bertha Benz and her sons had to push the car. Downhill, they hoped that the simple handbrake would hold out. They filled up with petroleum ether from the village pharmacies. Dirty and sweaty, the trio arrived in Pforzheim in the evening. The journey home was also a success. After the notorious "Bertha Benz ride," the patent motor car was awarded a gold medal a little later at a technology exhibition in Munich.
Bertha Benz Memorial Route - a coveted tourist attraction.
Today, the former tour of Bertha Benz is a sought-after tourist attraction through numerous original locations. In 2008, the Karlsruhe Regional Council officially approved the Bertha Benz Memorial Route as a vacation route - a monument to German industrial history that is more than 194 km long.
