Karl Benz Patents the First Practical Automobile

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JANUARY 29, 1912

Berlin, German Empire
140 years ago

On January 29, 1886, German mechanical engineer Karl Benz received a patent for what is widely regarded as the first practical automobile powered by an internal-combustion engine: the Benz Patent-Motorwagen.

This wasn’t a horse carriage with an engine bolted on as an afterthought. Benz designed the vehicle as a coherent system: engine, chassis, transmission, and steering working together as one machine. That integration is what made it “practical”: not a curiosity, but a blueprint.

It’s hard to overstate what this patent represents. It’s the starting gun for the age of personal motorized transport.

The Motorwagen was a strange-looking vehicle by today’s standards: three wheels, exposed mechanical parts, and modest speed. But it carried something priceless: repeatability. A design that could be built, improved, demonstrated, and—eventually—scaled.

And like many world-changing inventions, it needed proof in real life. In the years that followed, Benz’s wife Bertha Benz played a crucial role in validating the car’s practicality by taking it on a long-distance journey—showing the public that this machine could do more than roll down a street. It could replace the horse.

From there, history accelerated: roads, fuel systems, factories, suburbs, commuting, logistics, and entire economies reorganized around what Benz had set in motion.

—— WHY THIS MATTERS ——

Benz’s patent matters because it wasn’t just a new gadget; it was a new infrastructure trigger:

• Mobility became personal. The distance between home and work—and between towns—changed forever.

• Industry reshaped society. Mass production, oil, road networks, and modern supply chains followed.

• A new kind of freedom (and risk) emerged. Cars brought opportunity, but also accidents, pollution, congestion, and geopolitical dependence on energy.

In other words: the automobile didn’t just move people. It moved history.

—— THE TAKEAWAY ——

On January 29, 1886, Karl Benz made a claim to the future: that a self-propelled vehicle could be engineered, patented, and improved into a new normal.

It started as a three-wheeled machine. It became a world system.

At Masters of Trivia, with our MOT utility token, we turn turning points like this into daily interactive learning, so curiosity becomes a habit, and history becomes something you can use.

How much do you know about Mercedes Benz, Karl Benz, the Patent-Motorwagen, and the early race to build the first practical cars?

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