Mercedes Benz

Joined by her two sons Eugen and Richard, Bertha Benz undertakes the first car journey of any considerable distance in automotive history. A three-wheeler Benz patent motor car takes her from Mannheim to Pforzheim via Heidelberg, Bruchsal and Durlach, returning via Bretten and Bruchsal.

As early as the first agricultural fair after the end of World War II, Daimler-Benz impressed the expert world with the unparalleled concept of the Unimog, which comprised a chassis with two rigid axles – permitting a high degree of articulation - and coil springs, located by thrust arms and radius rods, with four-wheel drive and four equal-sized wheels. Production initially started at Böhringer, a mechanical engineering factory in Göppingen, in 1948. After 600 units built, production was relocated to the Gaggenau factory of Daimler-Benz in 1951.

August 15, 1883 – 125 years ago: The Kurtz bell-foundry in Stuttgart supplies Gottlieb Daimler with cast-iron components for his first internal combustion engine with horizontal cylinder. This first – comparatively high-speed – trial engine soon goes into testing.

August 1958 – 50 years ago: Newly founded Mercedes-Benz Sales, Inc. (MBS) – a subsidiary company of Studebaker-Packard based in South Bend, Indiana – assumes responsibility for Mercedes-Benz passenger car sales in the USA. The move heralds a revival in the brand's US sales figures.