Bertha Benz (help·info) (née Ringer) was born on 3 May 1849 in Pforzheim, Germany. She married inventor Karl Benz on 20 July 1872, and died 5 May 1944 in Ladenburg. She invested in Benz's business in 1871, enabling him to develop the first patented automobile, and in 1888 she was the first person to drive an automobile over a long distance. In doing so she brought the Benz Patent-Motorwagen worldwide attention and got the company its first sales.

In 1871 she invested in the workshop of her fiancé, Carl Benz, making it possible to go on with a long and expensive developing process. As an unmarried woman she was able to do so. Later, when they married, however, according to the law in those days, Bertha lost her juridical power to act.

On July 20, 1872, Bertha Ringer married Carl Benz. Together they had five children: Eugen (1873), Richard (1874), Clara (1877), Thilde (1882), and Ellen (1890). On August 5 1888, without telling her husband and without permission of the authorities, Benz drove with her sons Richard and Eugen, thirteen and fifteen years old, in one of the newly-constructed Patent Motorwagen automobiles—from Mannheim to Pforzheim—becoming the first person to drive an automobile over a real distance. Motorized drives before this historic trip were merely very short trial drives with mechanical assistants. This pioneering tour had a one-way distance of about 106 km (66 mi).