Benz Patent-Motorwagen
Carl Benz files his Motorwagen patent application
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The automobile's so-called birth certificate was, on the day it is celebrated, a pending application — the patent itself would not be granted for another nine months.
29 January 1886: filed in Berlin
On 29 January 1886, Carl Benz of Mannheim submitted an application to the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin for a “Fahrzeug mit Gasmotorenbetrieb” — a vehicle powered by a gas engine. He had produced and privately tested such a vehicle the previous year and now sought legal protection for its arrangement and drive.
No patent was granted that day. What Benz obtained was a filing date and a pending application.
DRP 37435, granted in November
The application was assigned German Imperial Patent number 37435. Examination followed, and the Imperial Patent Office granted the patent on 2 November 1886.
The enforceable grant thus came more than nine months after the celebrated date — with legal effect backdated to the 29 January filing.
A vehicle, not an engine
What the document protected matters as much as when. It described an integrated three-wheeled motor vehicle — engine, chassis and drive working together — rather than merely a standalone engine, and its contemporary title spoke of gas-engine operation, not the later marketing name “Patent-Motorwagen.”
The surviving printed specification carries unusual weight: the original issued patent and some related application records are missing.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources 3 audit passes
How this was checked
Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →
What the sources leave uncertain
- The filing and grant dates are independently supported by UNESCO’s Memory of the World record and the German Patent and Trade Mark Office.
- Historical shorthand often says Benz “patented” the car on 29 January. More precisely, he filed the application that day; the patent was issued on 2 November.