5 August 1888 – Bertha Benz drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in the first long distance automobile trip, commemorated as the Bertha Benz Memorial Route since 2008
5 August 1888 – Bertha Benz drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in the first long distance automobile trip, commemorated as the Bertha Benz Memorial Route since 2008
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Bertha Benz (née Cäcilie Bertha Ringer; 3 May 1849 – 5 May 1944) was a German automotive pioneer and inventor. She was the business partner and wife of automobile inventor Carl Benz.
On 5 August 1888, she was the first person to drive an internal-combustion-engined automobile over a long distance, field testing the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, inventing brake lining and solving several practical issues during the journey of 105 km.
In doing so, she brought the Patent-Motorwagen worldwide attention and got the company its first sales.
The trip with took place in the company of her 15- and 13-year-old sons Eugen and Richard, but without her husband’s knowledge.