Carl & Bertha (2011)

In 1870, business partners August Ritter and Carl Benz present their invention of a horseless carriage in Pforzheim, at a celebration where Bertha Ringer and Wilhelm von Mannstedt are also planning to get engaged. Both men have a vision and are looking for investors. But von Mannstedt Senior, the Mannstedt patriarch, refuses to support Carl, who storms off in anger, cursing. At the celebration, Carl meets the young Bertha Ringer and wins her over with his ideas. She gives in to her doubts about Wilhelm, calls off the engagement, and from then on secretly meets Carl against her father’s wishes. But Carl has problems of his own. Because he constantly reacts angrily to rejection, Ritter leaves their joint company and takes his capital with him, leaving Carl heavily in debt and with nothing. Carl promises Bertha that he will first pay off his debts before he can offer her a life together and marry her. But Bertha believes in him so strongly that she asks her father for a loan of 4,244 gold marks. When he refuses, she has her dowry paid out and marries Carl, making him debt-free. Yet even nine years later, when the Benz family lives in Mannheim in 1879, their financial situation has not improved. The family lives in poverty while Carl has had to abandon his vision and take on every job he can as a mechanic to earn enough to support them. One day, when court photographer Emil Bühler commissions photographic plates from Benz, he is so impressed by Carl’s craftsmanship that he offers to invest in his idea for a horseless carriage. At last Carl has money again, and Bertha can finally pay her bills. Carl then works day and night on his engine like a man possessed, endangering his health. Eventually, he misses deadline after deadline and is expected to complete a working engine by the end of the year, before Bühler pulls out as an investor. At the Christmas celebration, Bertha sees that her friend Corinna has married Wilhelm and joined wealthy society. She wonders whether life with Carl and the threat of poverty were the right choice. But on New Year’s Eve, Carl dispels her doubts by showing her that his engine works. At last, production of the engines can begin. After a while, however, Benz needs more capital to increase production and ultimately earn more money. Bühler accordingly suggests converting the company into a joint-stock corporation. With the issue of its first shares, the Mannheim Gas Engine Factory finally begins production. After a while, though, the shareholders make their demands. Gottlieb Daimler claims that Benz stole his ideas. Daimler sues him for patent infringement, demanding 37,000 gold marks. The shareholders face bankruptcy, so they offer Carl a way to settle the matter in exchange for all his shares, the management, and all proceeds from future inventions. Only Bertha believes in her Carl, and she persuades him to reject the offer. Carl pays the shareholders out and returns to living in poverty while seeking new investors. In Ulm, he eventually finds two backers, Max Kaspar Rose and Wilhelm Esslinger, to whom he immediately proposes an even bigger idea. Seven years later, on November 2, 1886, he patents the idea as a tricycle. His first test drive through the city ends in an accident after an initial burst of applause. He is even forbidden, under threat of police action, from using the vehicle again. Carl is dismayed and has to listen to his sons’ doubts as well. But Bertha cheers him up, pointing out that he will soon be able to sell his first vehicles at an exhibition. He does encounter Daimler there, but nobody wants to buy even one of Carl’s vehicles, so he is ready to give up. Wilhelm von Mannstedt would buy all the rights to his vehicle and thereby settle all his debts. But Bertha dislikes the idea, so she sets off with the boys to drive from Mannheim to Pforzheim. After refilling the tank with ligroin and mending the covering of the drive belt with her garter, they finally manage to reach their grandmother after 12 hours and 57 minutes, to great jubilation. She sends a telegram to her husband, who, fortunately, had already rejected the sales contract with Wilhelm. He disliked Wilhelm’s lack of vision and believed that his wife would succeed.