Bertha Benz: The Early Influencer

What she gave us: Brake lining

Karl (that’s the husband) had completed and then unveiled his Patent-Motorwagen automobile to the public in 1886. But the invention languished due to poor marketing. There was hardly any demand for what many considered a novelty item. Bertha then hit on a, well, novel idea to prove the viability of the automobile.

On 5 August 1888, the intrepid Bertha took Benz’s automobile – then sitting idle in his workshop as no one wanted to buy it – and her two sons on a long-distance drive, supposedly to visit her mother. Done without her husband’s knowledge (she also “stole” his driver’s licence), Bertha was really out to prove the automobile’s road-worthiness.

In so doing, she became the first person to drive an internal combustion engine automobile over a long distance – a journey of 106km.

(Photo: Bertha Benz in a Motorwagen)

Her publicity effort paid off and demonstrated that the automobile was capable of long-distance transportation. Soon orders for the Motorwagen started rolling in.

But that’s not all that she did.

During her drive, Bertha had encountered several problems with parts of the automobile.

Her sheer resourcefulness and knowledge of mechanical parts helped solved the challenges. For example, she used her hat pin to clear a blocked fuel line, and her garter to insulate an ignition wire.

Bertha had also worn out the wooden brakes of the vehicle during the trip. She then asked a cobbler to put leather soles on the brakes to slow down the wear and tear, effectively creating the world’s first brake lining.

For her contribution, a Bertha Benz Memorial Route – which tracks her history-making journey from Mannheim to Pforzheim – was officially opened in Germany in 2008.