15 Facts About Karl Drais

Karl Freiherr von Drais was a noble German forest official and significant inventor in the Biedermeier period.

Karl Drais is regarded as "the father" and as the inventor of the bicycle.

Karl Drais's first reported ride from Mannheim to the "Schwetzinger Relaishaus" took place on 12 June 1817 using Baden's best road.

Karl Drais rode his bike; it was a distance of about 7 kilometres.

Karl Drais later developed an early stenograph machine which used 16 characters, a device to record piano music on paper, the first meat grinder, and a wood-saving cooker including the earliest hay chest.

Karl Drais invented two four-wheeled human powered vehicles, the second of which he presented in Vienna to the congress carving up Europe after Napoleon's defeat.

Karl Drais was unable to market his inventions for profit because he was still a civil servant of Baden, even though he was being paid without providing active service.

Karl Drais retired from the civil service and was awarded a pension for his appointment to professor of mechanical science.

In 1822, Karl Drais was a fervent liberal who supported revolution in Baden.

Therefore, Karl Drais emigrated to Brazil where he lived from 1822 to 1827, and worked as a land surveyor on the fazenda of Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff.

Three years later in 1830, Karl Drais's father died and the younger Karl Drais was mobbed by jealous rivals.

In 1849, and still a fervent radical, Karl Drais gave up his title of Baron and dropped the "von" from his name.

Karl Drais's pension was confiscated to help to pay for the "costs of revolution" after it was suppressed by the Prussians.

Karl Drais died penniless on 10 December 1851 in Karlsruhe.

In 2017, Germany issued a commemorative postage stamp in remembrance of the 200th anniversary of Karl Drais's first run of his "running machine" on 12 June 1817.