On January 29, 1886, Carl Benz submitted the patent for a three-wheeled vehicle with gas engine to the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin. It had the number "DRP 37435". The patent specification for the world's first vehicle with an internal combustion engine and electric ignition is regarded today as the birth certificate of the automobile.

The text of the patent specification begins with the words: "The present construction is intended mainly for the operation of light carts and small boats, such as are used to transport one to four persons.… The driving power is provided by a small gas engine, of any system. The latter is supplied with its gas from an accompanying apparatus, in which gas is made from ligroin or some other gasifying substance. The engine cylinder is kept at a steady temperature by the evaporation of water." The filing of the patent in France followed on 25 March of the same year.

Prof. Dr. Hartwig Lüdtke, member of the German nominations committee of Memory of the World, stresses the importance which the document still possesses today: "The Benz bundle of documents possesses global relevance and symbolizes the origin of our present-day mobile society."