Topic summary
Karl Friedrich Benz
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Carl Benz.
Early life
Carl Benz was born Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant on 25 November 1844 in Mühlburg, Grand-Duchy of Baden, today a part of Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. His presumed birth house is remembered with a memorial at Rheinstraße 22, although the original building was demolished in the 1950s to make way for additional car lanes. He was the "illegitimate" child of Josephine Vaillant and Johann Georg Benz, a locomotive driver, whom she married a few months later. According to German law, the child acquired the name "Benz" by legal marriage of his parents. When he was two years old, his father died of pneumonia, and his name was changed to Karl Friedrich Benz in remembrance of his father. The Benz family was Lutheran in faith.