American Reacts to Bertha Benz: The Journey That Changed Everything 

actually,i saw a documentary about this a few days ago.at these days his car wasnt a succes,there where just no gasstations,so every thing went complicated and the people didnt liked it.but Bertha belived in it and stole it for this trip.the breaks were pretty bad and she came with the idea to put some stripes of leather on it,which made the breaks much more better,so she kinda invited the break pads.after all,she made it in 12hrs,with a horse you need 2 days with a night break.that proved how much better the "car "was,compared to the horse.after it went public and Carl improved the car with the inventions his wife made,it became a succes.

Karl Benz may have built the car, but he saw it as a plaything and just drove it round the courtyard. It was Bertha's inspiration to see it as a practical means of transport and actually prove that it worked.

Karl Benz was a legendary inventor. Bertha was just absolute legend

Bertha Benz was the first woman who snatched her husbands Car for a roadtrip to had some fun^^

That last shot of that child smiling... almost as if the innocent future smiling at what's to come! That last shot always gets me. Cinematography, music...all top notch!

In 2012 l went to see the Hockenheimring F1 race and we went to a place which was part of the road which she drove on, which was also part of the old and long Hockenheimring. That whole trip was like a pilgrimige for a pertol head. Also the Jim Clarck accident site and memorial is there. We also went to nearby Manheim where the car was invented and to nearby Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart. On the way back we visited Sinsheim and Speyer museums which are beyond amazing. What a trip. That area is genesis. Everybody who loves cars should go there

The "Bertha Benz Route" is signposted. I have often cycled this route

“Mercedes Benz,The best or nothing” ♥️

Talking about "every strong man needs a strong woman". Bertha Benz sure was one!

What makes this journey so great is the fact that NONE of the infrastructure to support cars existed yet. No gas stations (of course). But even modern roads didn't exist. A part of Bertha's journey was on a roman road. Yes, they still used to roads of Roman Empire in the 1800s! The existing roads weren't built with cars in mind but rather horse carriages. (Horses don't mind a muddy track, cars do. Especially cars with the slim wheels used at the time). And neither existed car chauffeurs yet. Back in the day, rich people (and you had to be VERY rich to afford a car!) didn't drive their carriages themselves - they had drivers. But when no driver knows how to drive a motor car, you wouldn't buy one. Bertha's journey - and the fact that she was a woman - helped tremendously on that front as well: how hard can it be to learn how to drive one of those new fangled motor cars if even a woman can do it? (That's not me talking. I am just quoting the attitude at the time).

My mother remembered seeing her first car. She was about 10. That was in the late 20s near Rotterdam!

She was also the first to do a proper indurance run in the Patent Motorwagen. Carl Benz only took the car out on short drives until something minor failed. Her Jouney unveiled so many more issues that it convinced him to push the car more to it's limits. So technically she is also the worlds first proper test driver.

we learned at school in history, that the first train was a similar story. The people protested that the train would make the cows crazy and don't give any more milk. Yes the cows went crazy but only for a few days and after it the cows were fine. people weren't they were still against trains for a while.

We learned her story in history back in school. But since I saw the movie in television as an adult I could not imagine which courage she had an journey she made.

You spelled Pforzheim pretty well. 😊👍 Interesting is, that Carl Benz was not the only inventor, that built a car in this year. Gottlieb Daimler did it also. Carl's was a three wheeler, Gottliebs had 4 wheels. One of them, not sure, who it was, also invented the first motorcycle.

There is a video on RU-vid, called "Germany’s Oldest Street-Legal Car" - its a Benz Viktoria from 1894. U should look it up, if u want to see more about these old vehicles.

The first working windshield wiper for a car was invented in 1903 by the American Mary Anderson (patent 1905), and in the 1910s windshield wipers became standard equipment on cars.

Sorry to say, but that film is not historically accurate at all. The setting is ridiculous and the reactions of the people are just nonsensical. We're talking about the age post industrial revolution. But here's a few fun historical tidbits about this trip. Bertha and her sons didn't actually know the way to Pforzheim and just went to places they knew that were kinda on the way and the just asked for the right way. Bertha also invented the first brake pads during the trip, when the rudimentary brakes (wooden blocks) were worn out and weren't capable of slowing the car during downhill sections and she asked a shoe maker to put leather strips on the brakes, which performed better and she could easily change them once they were worn out. The car broke down a few times from things like a clogged fuel or a worn out ignition wire, which Bertha fixed herself, with things she had on her. The car only had 2 gears, which weren't enough for getting uphill, so her sons had to push it. One of the first improvements Carl made to the car was to add another gear, so it could go uphill. Bertha basically stole the car, because Carl didn't really believe it would be a success, so she set out to prove to him that it would be. Word spread and half way through her trip, people and press were waiting to see her driving the car. Not only did she prove to Carl that the car would be a success, she got the attention of the people and the media. I guess the rest is history. Bertha was an inventor, mechanic, PR genius and probably the world's first real test driver

If you think more about it you must have goosebumps cuz this is it this is the moment that is beginning of ours mobility and freedom.

The four greatest minds in the automotive industry. Carl Benz, Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler as inventors of the automobile. Henry Ford, inventor of the production line.

I own a kind of biografy of Karl Benz (written 1936). The book is named "BENZ - Lebensfahrt eines deutschen Erfinders"/ BENZ - journey of life of a german inventor). The part with the "Ligroin" in the movie wasn´t that dramatically in reality.

In 1888, in addition to what you mentioned, one must not forget that there was no internet, radio, TV and newspapers back then, but reports would come days, weeks or even months later, provided it was important enough for the country, the region . Today, if something happens somewhere, we know it minutes later or can even follow it live. Purely in terms of technical progress, in almost every respect, this time must have been damn interesting, from our point of view, from the point of view of "ordinary, simple" citizens, probably extremely disturbing, just trying to drive the oxen across the field as a vehicle drives past, the present meets the future, so to speak. "She believed in more than a car. She believed in herself." A great saying, especially the 2nd part should be taken to heart by more people (including women) without being arrogant. Do you see in that girl what I think I see? She sees the future coming, fascinated, probably curious, I would think. Women, well, some still say "back the stove with them" even today; The fact is, they have shaped life for much longer than we were aware, be it Bertha Benz or an even more impressive example is Marie Curie (1867-1934), winner of two Nobel Prizes in physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911, on a Time when women were not actually allowed to think independently.

That video is amazing. I first saw it a few years ago and the production is first class. I love the look on the little girl's face at the end after seeing an amazing female role model.

The term "Power-Couple" fits on so many levels to those two. It is such a beautiful story. Fun fact: That exact route is nowadays a testing route for the self driving cars for Mercedes. There is somewhere a video about that too.

Before I retired, part of the Bertha Benz Memorial Route was my daily route to work.

Americans: "We invented the car!" Young german girl: "Hold my Mercedes-Benz steeringwheel...!" XD

regarding the "hand starting an engine"... that was actually a problem with early cars... there were quite a few people killed or injured by winders back then... main reason why they invented electric starters

I have a documentary somewhere on my computer, with a lengthy story telling of this trip she made. She actually took the car, without her husband knowing, because she wanted to promote and prove a concept. The automobile.

Gottlieb Daimler (the conteporary of Benz that Dirk Ulowetz mentioned) named his cars after his daughter. Her name was "Mercedes". ;) The two companies merged a few years later. I had a friend in college who was into vintage Mercs. Every time I'd mention that my old BMWs could do x,y, and z "better", he'd say "Maybe..but I'll stick with the guys who invented the thing." I hope he still has his '64 "Pagoda" SL..I'll bet that car would be worth $60K these days.

Thanks for great video!

This was a documentary on National Geographic or History channel a couple of years back. I was stunned by the story of Benz together mr Maybach that invented the functional carburator with Benz, aswel the Story of dr ing Ferdinant Porsche was impresing.

I think there is a mod in the game assetta corsa where you can download the first Benz car and drive it on the Nürburgring. It takes a while to get to the finish..... I have seen an exact working replica of this car in a Dutch automobile museum.

in 1888 in whole Europe trains were pretty normal transport, so i don´t think that car would be such technical mirracle from another world for people. ;)

Carl & Bertha, a movie from 2011 for example. It does contain some historical facts 😉

If you ever go to Germany, make sure you visit the Mercedes Benz HQ/Museum.

A very Suttle commercial but extremely powerful on the message being sent.

Yes! In 1888 and the Americans, contrary to popular belief, never invented the automobile (let alone the steam engine). The Americans did, however, come up with the Autoped in 1915.

That was cool!

Just to destroy a popular myth: "Motorwagen #1" with its flimsy wheels from "penny-farthing" bicycles and its faulty steering was nothing but a prototype and failed on cobbled streets or dirt roads. Dr. Dunlop had not yet made his important invention or at least Benz had not heard of it, either. Benz took "Motorwagen #1" to pieces again and started work on "#2" and then "#3". Those prototyes had more durable conventional "artillery wheels" with wooden spokes and a much stronger frame. And it was that very "#3" that his wife used for her journey. It was later sold and as far as I know is a museum exhibit either in London ("Science Museum" in South Kensington) or as a loan in the Benz-Museum in Benz's place of birth (NOT the Daimler-Benz Museum in Stuttgart). The remaining parts of "Motorwagen #1" were later given to the "Deutsches Museum" in Munich which opened its doors in the early 1900s. As the blueprints had survived in Carl Benz's drawers as well, it was possible to reconstruct the car to its original appearance. All those many replicas that puff around all over the world are based on that. Carl Benz died in 1929, his wife Bertha outlived him for another 15 years. Benz's rival Gottlieb Daimler had been half a generation older, he died in 1900. Benz and Daimler never met in life, maybe their lawyers did as there were lawcases about patent rights.

I drove that in Gran Tusrismo 4 😂

Witch? It's a bit of an exaggeration to call out a witch but if it was a village then indeed people may have thought they were seeing a witch. Some information. The locomotive was invented in 1804. And loco looks more like a monster than this vehicle from Benz. --------------------------- The first internal combustion, petroleum fueled motorcycle was the Daimler Reitwagen. It was designed and built by the German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Bad Cannstatt, Germany, in 1885. ------------------------- The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built in the United Kingdom in 1804 by Richard Trevithick, a British engineer born in Cornwall. This used high-pressure steam to drive the engine by one power stroke. -------------------- 1783. Arguably the first really successful steamboat, the Pyroscaphe was built by Claude-François-Dorothée, Marquis de Jouffroy d'Abbans. She was a paddle steamer whereby a steam engine would power sidewheels, or paddles, that would move the vessel through the water. -------------------- In 1863 the Sub Marine Explorer was built by the German American engineer Julius H. Kroehl, and featured a pressurized work chamber for the crew to exit and enter underwater. This pre-figured modern diving arrangements such as the lock-out dive chamber, though the problems of decompression sickness were not well understood at the time.[26] After its public maiden dive in 1866, the Sub Marine Explorer was used for pearl diving off the coast of Panama. It was capable of diving deeper than 31 m (102 ft), deeper than any other submarine built before. ------------------- The development of various types of vehicles has even exploded. Cars (vehicles with engines) practically appeared last. Practically because only airplanes appeared later because in 1903 thanks to the Wright brothers. Holy crap, dishwashers appeared in 1850! --------------------- Robert Anderson is often credited with inventing the first electric car some time between 1832 and 1839. The following experimental electric cars appeared during the 1880s: In 1881, Gustave Trouvé presented an electric car driven by an improved Siemens motor at the Exposition internationale d'Électricité de Paris. In 1884, over 20 years before the Ford Model T, Thomas Parker built an electric car in Wolverhampton using his own specially-designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries, although the only documentation is a photograph from 1895. In 1888, the German Andreas Flocken designed the Flocken Elektrowagen, regarded by some as the first "real" electric car. ---------------------- We often forget about the real inventors because "the famous ones" overshadow the original authors of various inventions.

Your pronunciation of Pforzheim was spot on.

Great video as per. Not a movie, but the Donut team did a Past Gas podcast episode on this story, well worth the listen.

I’m from the town where she was born and the story is, that her husband invented that car and she supported him an d worked with him. But he was to afraid to present the car to world…and so she “stole” the car one morning and traveled like in the movie described. The rest is history….

Carl & Bertha the movie 2011 but not conected with this short clip this is from 2019

Many people had already seen Steam Driven Vehicles so yes there would have been pockets of people who had never seen any self propelled vehicles hence their reaction.

5:40 it´s fine, close enough

This dramatisation looks like 1788 and people react like it's 1688. Aside from the fact that even back then village folks wouldn't treat a woman of obvious standing that way. That whole area was a centre of industry in the 1880s, with decades-old train lines crisscrossing it. And while the farming villages that dotted the landscape had not yet changed very much, people were well aware of what was going on in and near the cities that were just half a day's walk away.

She took her sons with her because the car couldn’t go uphill very well. So the sons had to got off and push whenever they got to a hill.

You shoud look for the movie and Story of R. Diesel its a industrial aktion movie

I thought the same Ian I was thinking that they could make a tv series or movie because I would watch it for sure if that short video is anything to go by

theirs a tv series cars that chanced the world that you must watch

Aka "The horseless carriage"

But the EV haters alive back then (called Luddites) would be saying Oh you'll have range anxiety, There is no Infrastructure, No suitable Roads only good For Horses and Cattle. It scares the Kids with the Noise ....etc,etc

That's nice but this is better ;-) The Beast of Turin returns to Goodwood

Not only were there no cars, there were also no real roads or road maps. If you asked for directions along the way, the other person had probably never seen the destination because it would have been a two-day journey by horse-drawn carriage. Here is an English documentary from the BBC= The world's first long-distance car journey - BBC REEL ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Bb5EIWymZp4.html

IDK if anyone said it yet, but she wasnt just the first person to drive a car, she was also the first person who was known for "driving without a licence" To test that thing legaly, the Emperor himself gave Karl Benz the licence to drive it on the road. The first ever drivers licence. However it was handed to Karl Benz, but Berta was like "Na, im the one who test it."

Have you seen the old colorized footage from 1906 or 1911 New York? At least half the vehicles in that are horse and carriage..I mean cars are still such a new concept. This modern way of living is still very new. Horses were used for everything before then. We were living the same way for thousands of years. Riding animals...that was as normal as it got. Riding cars was abnormal. haha If the modern world still exists and is progressing in 50 or so years rather than just collapsing or decaying, I wonder what that footage will look like. I'm sure it'll be something beyond battery powered cars, some kind of wireless energy perhaps. Hopefully we still have horses though because at some point all this will collapse and we'll revert back to the horse and buggy..that's just how it works.

I think the dramatization is a bit silly. They shot it like a western

And that is why we call the fuel in germany "Benz-In" the legacy lives in in the Daimler-Benz (Mercedes) brand... And diesel fuel is of course named after ferdinant diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine. It amazes me how many americans wonder if germans have electricity (not kidding) but then they go on driving a car completely ignorant to its history.... (they usually answer ford invented the car. But all ford invented was the conveyer-belt-assembly line production method) Then they get into a plane (jet engine) .... to get x-rayed (ferdinant braun) in a clinic somewhere else, and while waiting for their appointment they watch on TV (Ferdinant braun) how another rocket (Wernherr von braun) goes into orbit.... I guess, when all hollywood and allied-history books ever teach is that germans are the villains, it is kinda required to brush under the carpet that the world would not move as it does without them and their ingenuity. The only "braun" they ever will remember is hitlers spouse "eva" who had invented about nothing, and also contributed nothing to the world. Some education that is The english may know better, but there too goes the legend they had invented the first computer and jet engine, and both claims are proven to be wrong... Patriotism i guess. Good sport it is not.

If you love this story check out "Clärenore Stinnes" 😉

You might have gest it. And a daugther named Mercedes.

RU-vid upgraded you from one ad before the video to multiple ads.

Steam engines and the railway were already commonplace at that time. As dramatic as the reactions were portrayed in the film, it is certainly exaggerated.

And one still calls a liquid a gas

Wow that's a neat car. Crazy very brave women. I don't think I would have done that. love to you and the family. From UK 🇬🇧👍👍 b Safe take care. PEACE ☮️ an old cockney gal. Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all. 🎄⛄🍺🕊️🎁❄️🦃🍷🍾

"A which is coming"... OK, there was a bit too much drama in this.. In 1888 there were steam engines, locomotives, steam ships all over the world for almost 70 years. This film looks like they visited the middle 1600-s.

Nice history... did not now...

Same happening now for ev cars

Bertha Benz had the balls many men wish they had. And she doesn't get the credit for that.

I knew the story but not this video. It's great. And you spoke out Pforzheim perfectly well. Greetings from Germany. 👋

i love this and to hell with all this about not historically accurate nothing in this world is historically accurate its all belief . and the no thing back in that time unless you had a skill or were from money for the most part you worked a day to make it to the next but that's ok .

This short is better in acting, atmosphere and in most aspects than a whole bunch of recent Netflix shows and cinema movies. Brilliant!

Check out Yes Theory he has a lot of good stuff

She did it alone, as her husband invented the automobile, did not believe in his invention she had a famous press resonance and enabled the selling progress. This is a DB ad.

As far as I remember her husband hasn't had the courage to drive the car. So she took it.

"behind every successful man there stands a woman" - I confirm this based on my own experience 🙂

Day 2 video 2 of asking you to look at modern day trans am cars because they still exhaust.

One of the things the german invested first...and many more..!!!!

German alien inventions 👽

Hi, if you want to watch something with a bit of dark german humor, may you like to watch "Staplerfahrer Klaus", everyone who made a forklifter license in germany knows this..... with best regards from germany

It was the 1880s. A woman rided something generating noises and stinks. Should be a whitch. Nowadays? Yeahaa! Who is right?

🇦🇺🇺🇲⚡⚡

Read the history where the Benz becomes his name Mercedes by an Austrian salesmen

And she invented the disc brake. 😎 Stay safe 🤘🇺🇲🇩🇰🤘

LOL 5:41 Pfortzheim

As far i know there is a german Movie about Bertha Benz.

The first driver was female... And what a female. BTW I don't know where they shot the scenes, but believe me there were never donkeys in a German pub. It was a wealthy region, the best soil in all of Germany. She started on the outskirts of Mannheim (where the bicycle was invented) and went past Karlsruhe (look at the castles of Mannheim and Karlsruhe) to the capitol of German jewellers, Pforzheim. The pharmacy is still in existence... There has been a statue erected in memory of that fuel stop.

Ligroine sells booming.... =)

Something some may find interesting, the oldest car makers are 1. Peugeot: · 2. Tatra: · 3. Opel Automobile GmbH: · 4. Mercedes Benz: · 5. Skoda. Note that two of them are Czech :)

At that time (1888) was engines well introduced both on trains and ships plus in industry. So that both work or self propelling vehicle of sorts were around was nothing new. Hence the video seems quite a bit over dramatised. The only correct there might be that the horses could react. On the lake of Mjøsa in Norway are there still a paddle steamship in traffic (worlds oldest in traffic )....and that one was put into operation in 1856. So here is a video you can react to about that unique ship: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_vS_SywnKXA.html

typical movie made everything in the passed ugly and dirty... the pharmazy they got the petrol from was actualy quite nice

Too bad it's not really the first one. The first journey in car, outside cities, was Etienne Lenoir, inventor of the two-stroke engine. He made a 6-7 miles in the countryside of Paris, in 1862. Siegfried Markus did the same thing in the countryside of Vienna, in 1870 ... but being a Jew, his heritage was destroyed during WW2, in favor of Daimler and Benz.

Where is the opressed woman in the story...🤣 People are forgetting that those couples worked together through harsh life. Just saying...

i think the video is extremely exagerated . And not much historically !

Same hostility happens to EV Drivers now days. There are always the old-ways-people who don´t like change and fear change and therefore hate all people that do changes and like progress

what a load of bs in the video and the commentary about people back in those days ... you kids do realize that steam powered carriages and busses were a thing already for quite some time at that point? And that steam powered tractors (traction engines) worked on fields? Sure, those were still rare and expensive, but people knew about them for years in the 1880s. While a light weight car with combustion engine would certainly have raised attention, noone would be shocked or scream of witches by a carriage without a horse.

The "She Believes In Herself" is pure Woke BS... The truth is she believe in her husband and make the journey to prove to the world he was right about cars.

This movie is 80% bullsh...

The movie is a over dramatic with a 1000 liter tank full of feminism. Don't take it to seriously.