Overview
- Carl Benz’s 29 January 1886 patent (DRP 37435) is widely treated as the automobile’s birth certificate and is listed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World.
- Bertha Benz’s 1888 drive of roughly 100–106 kilometers from Mannheim to Pforzheim provided the first documented long‑distance proof of the car’s practicality.
- Mercedes‑Benz, Volkswagen and BMW generated about €613 billion in revenue in 2024, while German auto employment fell to roughly 721,400 and 2025 domestic output reached about 4.1 million cars.
- Manufacturers still post multi‑billion‑euro profits, yet earnings have retreated from pandemic peaks and suppliers are under particular strain from the shift to electric vehicles.
- Mercedes marked the 140th anniversary with a new S‑Class presentation as BMW and Porsche publicly sent congratulatory messages.