Lesser Known Jews—Siegfried Marcus

Years ago, I wrote a series of blogs about lesser-known Jews—naturally, I called it Lesser Known Jews.

Sure, we all know the famous names, but there are plenty of remarkable Jews who’ve slipped through the cracks of history—even for someone like me, a self-proclaimed student of Jewish history.

Today’s subject is one of them: Siegfried Marcus.

And as I dig into his story, I can’t help but wonder: Why have I never heard of this guy?

Siegfried Marcus was a German-Jewish inventor and engineer. In 1870—fifteen years before Carl Benz rolled out his first “modern” automobile—Marcus built a petrol-powered, four-wheeled vehicle.

Okay, it was technically a seatless handcart. But come on—four wheels, a gas motor, self-propelled? That’s a car in my book.

So why isn’t Marcus celebrated alongside Benz and Daimler? Well… here’s where the road takes a dark turn.

Because Marcus was Jewish, the Nazis erased him from history. His name and all memorabilia—especially in Austria—vanished. In 1937, the Austrian Harand Movement Against Racial Hatred actually issued stamps featuring prominent Jews, including Marcus, as a rebuttal to Julius Streicher’s vile “Eternal Jew” exhibition in Munich. They credited Marcus with inventing the petrol-driven motor car.

But when the Germans occupied Austria in 1938, Marcus’ memorial in front of the Vienna Technical University was torn down. His car—hidden away during the war—was later recovered and put back on display after the Nazis fell.

The erasure was methodical. In July 1940, the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda issued this directive to Daimler-Benz:

In the future, the encyclopedias Meyers Konversations Lexikon and the Große Brockhaus are to refer to the two German engineers Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz as the creators of the modern automobile, not to Siegfried Marcus.

And just like that, Marcus’ name was scrubbed from encyclopedias, classrooms, and public memory.

Now you know the rest of the story—why Siegfried Marcus never got the credit he deserved, and why, until today, you’d probably never heard of him.