Bertha Benz Memorial Route
| Bertha Benz Memorial Route | |
|---|---|
| Logo: |
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| Country: | Germany |
| Length: | 194 km |
| State: | Baden-Württemberg |
| Region: | North Baden |
| Course direction: | North-South, South-North |
| Start: | Mannheim |
| Widest point: | Pforzheim |
| The End: | Mannheim |
| Altitude: | 89 m to 359 m above sea level NN |
The Bertha Benz Memorial Route is a German tourist or holiday route with a cultural and historical background. Today it enables everyone to follow the route that Bertha Benz chose in 1888 for the first long-distance automobile trip in history.
history
In 1886, Carl Benz, who was born in Karlsruhe, invented the automobile in Mannheim (imperial patent 37435 of January 29, 1886), but initially it was not an economic success.
At the beginning of August 1888, his wife Bertha Benz, accompanied by their 15 and 13-year-old sons Eugen and Richard , demonstrated the everyday suitability of the horseless carriage , which the automobile is, by secretly driving the Benz Patent Motor Car number 3 from Mannheim to her native Pforzheim and back Breakthrough.
In the city pharmacy in Wiesloch , a few liters of ligroin had to be bought as fuel , which was then used as a cleaning agent. This is how this pharmacy became the world's first petrol station . A memorial plaque and a memorial attached there remind of this.
Several repairs also had to be carried out during the journey, two of which Bertha Benz was able to do on the open road: “ One time the fuel line was blocked - my hat pin helped. The other time the ignition was broken. I fixed that with my garter belt . "
Sponsorship
The private non-profit initiative for the establishment of the Bertha Benz Memorial Route founded two associations in 2007, the Bertha Benz Memorial Route e. V. and the Bertha Benz Memorial Club e. V. The latter is recognized as non-profit in the fields of education, preservation of monuments and heritage and wants to make Bertha Benz's historical achievement known.
On February 25, 2008, the Karlsruhe Regional Council officially approved the Bertha Benz Memorial Route as a tourist or holiday route, a 194 kilometer long dynamic monument of Baden and thus also German industrial history . The Bertha Benz Memorial Route is a member of the ERIH (European Route of Industrial Heritage).
course
Outward journey
The outward journey leads in a southerly direction for about 104 kilometers from Mannheim to Pforzheim:
Mannheim , Feudenheim , Ilvesheim , Ladenburg , Schriesheim , Dossenheim , Heidelberg , Rohrbach , Leimen , Nussloch , Wiesloch , Mingolsheim , Langenbrücken , Stettfeld , Ubstadt , Bruchsal , Untergrombach , Weingarten , Grötzingen , Berghausen , Söllingen , Kleinsteinbach , Wilferdingen , Königsbach , Stein , Eisingen , Pforzheim .
The route mentioned above and also signposted corresponds as far as possible to the original route driven by Bertha Benz. The only exception: from Wilferdingen she drove along today's federal highway 10 to Pforzheim. The section between Wilferdingen and Pforzheim, which corresponds to the route historically traveled by Bertha Benz, has been marked with the “Bertha Benz Memorial Route (hist.)” Signs since November 2012.
Return trip
The return journey takes another route in a northerly direction over 90 kilometers from Pforzheim back to Mannheim:
Pforzheim, Bauschlott , Bretten , Gondelsheim , Helmsheim , Heidelsheim , Bruchsal , Forst , Hambrücken , Wiesental , Kirrlach , Reilingen , Hockenheim , Talhaus , Ketsch , Schwetzingen , Friedrichsfeld , Seckenheim , Mannheim.
Landscapes
Bertha Benz's authentic route not only links the almost forgotten original locations of her journey, but also leads through the Baden wine-growing region .
This route of industrial culture follows several Roman roads in the area of the Upper Rhine Plain , including the Bergstrasse , leads along Odenwald and Kraichgau to turn off shortly before Karlsruhe towards Pforzheim in the northern Black Forest .
On the way back, it then leads through the Kraichgau, again through the Upper Rhine Plain, this time following the Rhine floodplains towards the start and destination of Mannheim .
Attractions
- Mannheim : Electoral Palace Mannheim , Luisenpark , Mannheim water tower
- Ladenburg : Dr. Carl Benz , house of the Benz family, old town
- Heidelberg : Heidelberg Castle , Heidelberg Old Town , Old Bridge
- Wiesloch : city pharmacy (first gas station in the world)
- Bruchsal : Bruchsal Castle
- Pforzheim : Pforzheim Jewelry Museum , industry Pforzheim with Schmuckwelten, castle and Collegiate Church of St. Michael (Pforzheim) (grave lay the Margrave of Baden), with attached Johannes Reuchlin -Museum
- Bretten : Melanchthon house on the market square, near which lies Maulbronn Monastery ( World Heritage of UNESCO ). Students at Maulbronn Monastery included Johannes Kepler , Friedrich Hölderlin and Hermann Hesse
- Hockenheim : Hockenheimring Motorsport Museum , Hockenheimring
- Schwetzingen : Schwetzingen Castle
Car Museum Dr. Carl Benz in Ladenburg
The gold city of Pforzheim
Melanchthon House in Bretten
Petigars Prat Carrabin in Schwetzingen Palace Gardens Bertha-Benz-Fahrt 2011
Bertha Benz Challenge
The Bertha Benz Memorial Route was opened at the end of 2008, but the Baden-Württemberg State Ministry suggested organizing the official inauguration drive as part of the 2011 Automobile Summer, the official event to commemorate the invention of the automobile by Carl Benz 125 years ago.
On September 10 and 11, 2011, the first Bertha Benz Challenge took place under the motto “Sustainable mobility on the world's oldest automobile road!”. Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann took over the patronage. State Minister Silke Krebs and Science Minister Theresia Bauer took part as representatives of the state of Baden-Württemberg .
Only vehicles with alternative drives - electric and hybrid drives, hydrogen drives and fuel cells - as well as very fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles were permitted. 43 vehicles with an alternative drive were registered, including a replica of the Flocken electric car from 1888.
The German wave sent it on 25 January 2011, a preliminary report in the framework of the program "Made in Germany".
The second Bertha Benz Challenge took place from September 14 to 16, 2012, but started as part of the Automechanika from the Messe Frankfurt site and included two laps on the Motodrom of the Hockenheimring , which was visibly opened up to electromobility.
The third Bertha Benz Challenge took place from September 13th to 15th, 2013, and started for the first time at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt. The patrons were Federal Environment Minister Peter Altmaier , Prime Minister Volker Bouffier , and Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann.
The fourth Bertha Benz Challenge took place from September 19 to 21, 2014. It started as part of the Automechanika in Frankfurt.
Others
In August 2013, Mercedes-Benz chose the historically significant Bertha Benz Memorial Route for an overland test drive with an autonomously operating vehicle ( Mercedes-Benz S-Class ). The route was largely covered independently; the driver only had to intervene in particularly complex traffic situations.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bertha Benz Memorial Route: Germany's newest holiday route honors a legend . Press release from May 14, 2009 (PDF; 57 kB)
- ↑ Rudolf Vögele: 1997 Ersingen, our home - part of its history. Geiger-Verlag, Horb am Neckar, ISBN 3-89570-292-7
- ^ Website of the Bertha Benz Challenge
- ^ The Bertha Benz Challenge 2011 on YouTube
- ↑ DW-TV (long version on YouTube): History of the automobile including the Bertha Benz Challenge
- ↑ 5-page report on the Bertha Benz Challenge in the EMobile plus solar magazine (PDF; 2.1 MB)
- ↑ Article on the homepage of the Stuttgarter Zeitung, September 9, 2013, accessed on January 9, 2015.
literature
- Karl Volk: Carl Benz. Life journey of an inventor. Koehler and Amelang, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-7338-0302-7 (unchanged reprint of the 1925 edition).
- Angela Elis : My dream is longer than the night. How Bertha Benz drove her husband to world fame. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-455-50146-9 .
- Benz & Cie. (Ed.): The Benzwagen. Wellhöfer, Mannheim 2008, ISBN 3-939540-19-6 (reprint of the corporate publication from 1913).
- Hans-Erhard Lessing: Mannheim pioneers. Wellhöfer, Mannheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-939540-13-7 .
- Winfried A. Seidel: Carl Benz. A story from Baden. Edition Diesbach, Weinheim 2005, ISBN 3-936468-29-X .
- Rudolf Vögele: 1997 Ersingen, our home - part of its history. Geiger-Verlag, Horb am Neckar, ISBN 3-89570-292-7 .
- Anna Schnekker, Dietmar Stanka, Edgar Meyer: Bertha Benz Memorial Route - history and culture along the first long-distance automobile journey. Grebennikov Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-941784-37-6 .
Web links
- Bertha Benz Memorial Route
- Bertha Benz Challenge
- Detailed maps of the outward and return journey with GPS downloads
- First gas station in the world in the city pharmacy in Wiesloch. Rhein-Neckar industrial culture, accessed on February 7, 2015 .