Bertha Benz, the wife and business partner of Carl Benz, played an instrumental role in Mercedes-Benz's foundation.
A film released for International Women’s day tells the story of Bertha’s journey from Mannheim to Pforzheim, Germany, the world’s first long distance drive in a car. While people remained sceptical of the car’s new technology, Bertha was determined to show the potential of her husband’s invention. The ad was shot like a classic Western film and dramatises one of her stops along the way. Because mechanics didn’t exist, she used a pharmacy to find fuel, a hat pin to clear fuel lines and her garter for insulation.
