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Johannes Gutenberg and printingJohannes Gutenberg und der Buchdruckum 1400-1468

The goldsmith from Mainz whose movable type turned the book from a single object into a commodity around 1450.

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Gutenberg was a goldsmith in Mainz, and that was precisely the precondition: his invention is less the press than the casting mould, which allowed individual letters of a lead-tin-antimony alloy to be produced any number of times at exactly the same height. Only that made typesetting economic. Around 1454 the forty-two-line Gutenberg Bible appeared, of which some forty-nine copies survive. Commercially he was no success: his backer Johann Fust sued, won, and took over the workshop. The consequences are hard to overstate - within fifty years there were printing shops in over two hundred and fifty European cities, and neither the Reformation nor the Enlightenment is conceivable without that channel. Linguistically, printing is the reason a common written German gradually formed out of many regional spellings.

What to know

  • The casting mould for individual letters, not the press - Die Gießform für einzelne Lettern, nicht die Presse
  • The forty-two-line Gutenberg Bible around 1454 - Die 42-zeilige Gutenberg-Bibel um 1454
  • His backer Johann Fust took over the workshop - Sein Geldgeber Johann Fust übernahm die Werkstatt
  • The basis for a common written German - Grundlage für eine gemeinsame deutsche Schriftsprache
Hallmark

The Gutenberg Bible was produced in Mainz around 1454.

Die Gutenberg-Bibel entstand um 1454 in Mainz.

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Carl and Bertha BenzCarl und Bertha BenzPatent 1886

The 1886 patent for the first motor car - and the first long-distance drive two years later, made by Bertha Benz without her husband’s knowledge.

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On 29 January 1886 Carl Benz applied for patent DRP 37435 for a vehicle powered by a gas engine; the three-wheeled Patent-Motorwagen Number 1 has counted as the first automobile ever since. At first he sold almost none, because nobody believed the machine could cover a distance. His wife Bertha Benz changed that: in August 1888 she drove with their two sons, and without her husband’s knowledge, from Mannheim to Pforzheim, some hundred and six kilometres. On the way she bought ligroin at a pharmacy - which is why the town pharmacy in Wiesloch counts as the first filling station in the world - cleared a blocked pipe with a hat pin and had a blacksmith repair a chain link. Her feedback led to an extra gear for gradients and to better brake linings. Today the route is signposted as the Bertha Benz Memorial Route.

What to know

  • Patent DRP 37435 of 29 January 1886 - Patent DRP 37435 vom 29. Januar 1886
  • Bertha Benz drove some 106 km from Mannheim to Pforzheim in 1888 - Bertha Benz fuhr 1888 rund 106 km von Mannheim nach Pforzheim
  • The pharmacy in Wiesloch counts as the world’s first filling station - Die Apotheke in Wiesloch gilt als erste Tankstelle der Welt
  • Her feedback brought a hill gear and better brakes - Ihre Rückmeldungen brachten einen Berggang und bessere Bremsen
Hallmark

The 1886 Patent-Motorwagen counts as the first automobile.

Der Patent-Motorwagen von 1886 gilt als erstes Automobil.

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Karl Drais and the running machineKarl Drais und das Laufrad1817

The ancestor of the bicycle, built in Mannheim in 1817 - invented in a year when there was hardly any fodder left for horses.

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In 1817 Karl Drais presented his Laufmaschine in Mannheim: a two-wheeled wooden frame with a steerable front wheel, propelled by pushing off with the feet - it had no pedals yet. The occasion was concrete. The eruption of Mount Tambora had caused the year without a summer in 1816, harvests failed, oats grew scarce and horses were slaughtered. Drais was looking for a replacement that needed no fodder. The machine is named Draisine after him, and the decisive innovation was not the wheel but the insight that a two-wheeler balances itself while moving, through steering. Pedals only arrived in the 1860s, the chain to the rear wheel in the 1880s. The word itself is a good find for learners: a Laufrad today is the pedal-less children’s bike - the same idea, two hundred years later.

What to know

  • Presented in Mannheim in 1817, without pedals - 1817 in Mannheim vorgestellt, ohne Pedale
  • The occasion was the year without a summer, 1816 - Anlass war das Jahr ohne Sommer 1816
  • The insight: a two-wheeler balances itself through steering - Die Einsicht: ein Zweirad hält sich beim Lenken selbst
  • Laufrad today means the pedal-less children’s bike - Laufrad heißt heute das pedallose Kinderrad
Hallmark

The 1817 Draisine still had no pedals.

Die Draisine von 1817 hatte noch keine Pedale.

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