World’s first driver: Bertha Benz and her great story
Published Mon 2nd November 2020
First of all, on Women’s Day, I would like to convey my sincere wishes and best wishes to all the women in the world. A woman is a queen in her house and the warrior outside. A woman is pregnant, beloved, motherly, and compassionate. History shows how many women have done great deeds and have been able to write their glorious names in gold in the pages of history. Mother Teresa, the nurse Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie, the Nobel laureate scientist, and Bertha Benz, the wife of Carl Benz, the world’s first female automobile inventor. Bertha Benz was the world’s first car passenger, driver, and world’s first car manufacturing assistant. And the funny thing is he was the first shoemaker to fix a brake shoe with a car and this was the first car repair in history.
Bertha Benz at a glance
Name – Bertha Benz.
Born in 1849.
Place of birth – Born in Forgeim, Germany to a wealthy family.
Married – At the age of 23, she married Carl Benz in 1872.
Children – The Benz couple had two children.
Experience – Bertha Benz is the first woman driver in the world and she was able to drive uphill for 15 hours without any previous experience.
Death: Bertha Benz died in 1988 at the age of 95
The world’s first driver Bertha Benz
When Carl Benz invented the first petrol-powered car without a horse, Bertha Benz drove the car first. She drove the car 6 miles and it was the story of the world’s first driver. Later a movie was made about him.
Bertha in an adventurous expedition
Marriage, family, and patriarchy mean having a husband and children. And to be restless all the time for the patriarchy. This rule has been going on since that primitive age. Bertha Benz did the opposite. After the marriage, she would occasionally run to her father’s house. Once, without informing her husband, she left for her father’s house with her two children, aged 13 and 15. And with her husband’s newly made three-wheeled Model-3 car. Leave a letter for Benz, of course. But at that time the road was not very suitable for driving. There were no petrol stations or workshops on the way. She wasn’t even sure how far she could go with this car with her two children.
The journey begins with various disasters – engine overheating, running out of petrol, erasing brake shoes, etc. To keep the engine cool, Bertha’s children had to go in the middle to look for water and fetch water to pour into the engine. When she ran out of petrol, she bought benzene from a pharmacy on the way. Bertha Benz took a pin from her hat and cleaned the area where the oil was stuck in the engine. One of the engines was heating up again and again and Bertha fixed it with the rubber of her socks.
At that time, it was the first time that so many car problems were solved quickly, so Bertha is also called the first car mechanic. Eventually overcoming all obstacles they reached the destination. After the incident, Benz arranged an exhibition of cars in Mukhin. Her show became so popular that the Benz couple won a gold medal.
The Benz couple built today’s, Mercedes Benz. The commercially successful car came to the forefront because of Bertha Benz and her adventures. The success of the Benz car was not only the achievement of Carl Benz alone but also of Bertha Benz.
Bertha’s cooperation and hard work
Under German law at the time, no married woman could own a business. Before the marriage, Bertha Benz helped Carl Benz financially and also gave money as a dowry during the marriage so that Benz could run the cost of inventing and preparing his car. And not just financially, she has always had the full responsibility of being a wife. Benz was given many kinds of advice to make his car. One of her advice was that the car should run well in low gear and Bertha Benz advised to make a cover for the brakes. Following her advice, Benz made many changes and improvements inside the car.
People used to think that the automobile industry is only a place for men to work and men will continue to rule the automobile world. But Bertha Benz turned the page on that history. Yet women are not seen to be very involved in the automobile world. But in science, culture, literature, industry, administration, management, trade, we have seen the movement of women. May women be victorious in this indomitable way of running. I am concluding today’s Women’s Day with two famous lines of the poem ‘Women’ written by Kazi Nazrul Islam.
“Any great creation in the world is eternally auspicious
Half of it is done by women, half by men. “
