The journey of Mercedes-Benz into the history is long and composite while many individuals and factors played crucial role for its today’s dominance in automotive industry. It is required to dig up through the very early years where the concept of the car as well as the automotive industry did not exist yet. The individual who did the first innovative step and established the new perception of motorization at the end of 19th century, was Karl Benz. The man who invented the automobile.

Karl Benz

‘In order to answer future demands, in order to create extraordinary values, one has to start with the foundation, at the bottom’.

Born in Karlsruhe in 1844, Karl Benz was two-years old when his father, an engine driver on the railways, died. His father’s impact played significant role in Karl’s life not only in terms of the mechanical interest but in his attitude as well. His studies in technical college led Karl to work as trainee in many companies as mechanical engineer and bridge constructor among others. However, at the age of 27 he created his own metal bending business, together with August Ritter, but Benz’s dream was clear: ‘I brazenly picked the most ambitious goal – I wanted to construct a vehicle like my father had driven, but without horses and without rails. A street car that drives itself’, he wrote years later.

Many attempts had been done after Otto’s striking internal combustion engine by the mid of 1870s, but Benz’s perception about them was that they were still incomplete and not reliable. He was well aware that the completion of his ‘dreaming’ machine would come after serious and hard work and his personality was such that it was matter of time to accomplish his plan.

The first construction was a stationary two-stroke engine where completed in 1879 on New Year’s Eve. This first motor of Karl Benz was made to use coal gas, but a random accident that a local woman had when she was cleaning apparels in a bowl of petrol, made Karl to realize the true potential of that fuel. Thus, in 1884 Karl Benz registered his first petrol fueled, four-stroke engine and his vision became almost reality. His obsession to create a complete self-propelled vehicle rather than a perfect engine, as Gottlieb Daimler wanted, it made him to leave the business that started in 1871 with August Ritter and together with Max Rose and Friedrich Esslinger, founded the Benz & Cie company in Manhheim in 1883. After three years of hard work, finally, in 1886 unveiled Benz’s first three-wheeled, the ‘Benz Patent Motor Car’.

‘Benz Patent Motor Car’

‘In those days it was unthinkable that anyone would want to swap a stately horse-drawn carriage for an unreliable, ugly, smoky, rattly steel vehicle’.

The priorities that Karl had set for his invention were not concerned the exterior design or its commercial promotion. Karl Benz was a practical man and the only thing that concerned him was the reliability of his three-wheel car. His focus on perfecting his invention by making it as durable and reliable as could be, led him to neglect other aspects such as the design or the refinement of the car. He was an engineer absolutely committed on his profession and nothing more.

Paradoxically, the person that proved the reliability of Karl’s construction was his wife Bertha, who did the world’s first long-distance trip in a motorcar, traveling 60 miles from Mannheim to Pforzheim. The Benz’s ‘Motorwagen’ was well constructed and until then it had accomplished unprecedented for the era achievements.

However, Karl was not the only player in this game. By 1893, Gottlieb Daimler, the main competitor of Karl, had already built his first four-wheel car and he was threatening Benz’s company. It took eight years for Karl to proceed to the next step and eventually build his first four-wheel automobile. Finally, he built the Victoria, a four-wheel car with pivoting axles for better steering, which produced in 1893, while a year later Karl built the Victoria’s successor, the notorious Velo which became the world’s first production car.

The Benz’s first four-wheel car Victoria

The Velo

Karl Benz and his wife Bertha on Victoria model

By 1900, Benz & Cie was the biggest car manufacturer in the world, with 500 workforce producing over 600 cars in that year. However, the arrival of the 20th century did not bring good fortune to the brand. As David Scott-Moncrieff-motoring author- commented: ‘By about 1901 the buying public began to turn away from the reliable, but paralysingly slow Benz cars, which even then had a remarkably antiquated appearance’. With sales falling after 1900, Karl Benz resigned from the management board of the company and it was decided to recruit two new designers in order to build a new road car and to develop a competitive response to Mercedes racing cars. The outcome of this new effort was a car named Parsifal which was built in 1903.

The Benz Parsifal, 1903

After Karl’s resignation and the success of the Parsifal, company faced in some way its revival. Sales started going upwards and the brand created a loyal custom base. The only sector that Benz company did not involve was the races. Benz never wanted to enter into the spirit of competition, particularly on the racetrack. However, the prestige of winning high speed record was great of importance, hence the brand had to compromised with the contemporary trends. At the first decade of 20th century, it had been built the most important car of Benz brand by then, which changed significantly the conservative brand’s image. Based on the Gran Prix cars of 1908, the ‘Blitzen Benz’ launched in 1909 and it was capable to reach speeds more than 125 mph, an extreme figure for those days. With a 21.5 litre, producing 200 bhp from the very early 1600 rpm, the ‘Blitzen Benz’ set a new world speed record of 143 mph in 1911.

The notorious ‘Blitzen Benz’ distinguishes for its streamline design

The Benz brand after 1907 was trying to reinvent itself and particularly to change the image of its cars with advertisements. However, the popular perception about the Benz cars would hardly change because even in 1914 people viewed the brand first and foremost as the ‘original’, not as the leader. Authenticity and quality were the key features of the brand and no one could claim the opposite, but the unimaginative design and the simplicity of cars’ construction made them looking old-fashioned. In contrary, Daimler’s cars under the Mercedes name were becoming popular for their complexity, glamour and design.

Karl Benz died in 1929 at the age of 84 and his work marked the automotive industry as well as the Mercedes-Benz cars.

Sources: Leslie Butterfield: Enduring Passion, the story of Mercedes-Benz brand

http://www.wikipedia.com

Images: rangerollers.blogspot.co.uk