120 years of women drivers?

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The story is well-known… Carl Benz couldn’t get his motor car to work properly and had given up. His wife Bertha thought otherwise. In August 1888 she secretly took her husband's invention, loaded up her two sons and drove from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back, the first long-distance trip. En-route she encountered lots of problems but all of them were solved and thus Bertha Benz proved that the motor car could become a reliable way to travel. But… is this the true story? Older sources tell us that it was not Bertha Benz who did the driving. It was first Eugen, the eldest son who drove. From the moment the road went uphill, her son Richard took the helm and Bertha and Eugen started pushing the car. It appears that Bertha never drove at all; it were her sons that did the driving. But we must give Bertha the credit where it’s due; it was she who took the initiative and without her history might have taken another turn. To celebrate Bertha Benz’ achievement of 120 years ago, her trip is recreated this weekend. (RB)

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