1844-1929

German engineer who built the first practical automobile powered by an internal combustion engine.

Benz founded Benz and Company in Mannheim to manufacture gas engines. He started to build his first gas engine in 1878, and produced his first motor vehicle in 1885. The car, patented in 1886, had three wheels, an electric ignition, differential gears and was water-cooled.

In 1926 his company merged and became the Daimler-Benz AG, the manufaturer of the Mercedes-Benz automobile.