Ladenburg, the Roman City of the Godfather of Cars

Every German takes pride in their autos and it is hard to argue against the German Whip ( side note, if you don’t listen to hip-hop or UK grime, you may be questioning the meaning of German Whip, according to the urban dictionary, the steering wheel use to be called a whip back in the day and various hiphop artist noticed that the Mercedes-Benz logo resembled the shape of a wheel, hence they called it a German Whip).

Urban lessons aside, the history behind Mercedes-Benz is an interesting one, which you can read up in your own time but it introduces you to the historic figure of Karl Benz, who lived many of his years in Ladenburg. He was the inventor of the first horseless carriage (and now we are at the age where driver less cars are the new trend) and practical motorcar. It was then his wife, Bertha Benz, who went on to demonstrate the use of car for travel and made the first long-distance trip by car (106km). She also made her first petrol stop at a pharmacy in Ladenburg. This was in 1888… not that long ago if you think about where we are today!

Today you can visit the Karl Benz house in Ladenburg which has been preserved and is now a museum. The city itself is a beautiful roman city and one of Germany’s oldest. If you are in the south of Germany I would definitely recommend a visit especially in the summer. Like one of my favourite German cities not far away, Heidelberg, Ladenburg sits by the infamous Neckar river and the riverbank gets really busy on a fine summer’s day!

Now I’ll let the pictures do the talking…