Bertha Benz: Trailblazing the First Drive of the Internal Combustion Engine Automobile
Bertha Benz was the first driver.
3 min readFeb 13, 2022
She forged the road ahead, to pave it for us all.
She was the business partner and wife of automobile inventor Carl Benz.
Bertha Benz around 1870.
Born 3 May 1849–5 May 1944. She was a German automotive pioneer and inventor.
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 (65 miles).
Bertha brought the Patent-Motorwagen worldwide attention and got the company its first sales.
The Benz Patent-Motorwagen Number 3 of 1886, was used by Bertha Benz for the highly publicized first long-distance road trip, 106 km (66 mi), by automobile.
