KingNils

Quite a while ago I wrote for the Daimler-Blog about the visionary power of Gottfried Daimler. In Stuttgart (Germany) one can actually experience the most important steps in the development of the automobile at the Daimler Memorial. Vistors can get even more detailed insights at the Mercedes-Benz-Museum just outside the Daimler headquarters in Stuttgart Untertürkheim.

Now – Stuttgart is quite a ride away from Washington DC, and so some historical confusion is not unnatural as far as the following question is concerned: Who invented the automobile? In Harvard, history doesn’t seem to be that important on students’ schedules, or maybe Barack Obama has skipped these classes completely.  A central sentence of his congress speech yesterday was:

I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it!’

However, a quick look at Wikipedia’s article on the history of the autombile would have sufficed :

It is generally acknowledged the first automobiles with gasoline-powered internal combustion engines were completed almost simultaneously by several German inventors working independently.

Barack Obama will be in Baden Baden in April for the Nato summit. From there it takes about an hour to drive to Stuttgart (well actually I even know a helicopter landing place nearby). I’m not sure whether the summit schedule permits a short trip to Stuttgart – but it might actually be adviseable if not necessary! Maybe Dieter Zetsche can convince Obama with a kind invitation to Stuttgart.