Berlin (carriage)

The horse-drawn carriage Berline (plural berlins ) is a two - or four-seat full -suspension travel by car. The type of car was named after its proximity to Berlin and because of the popularity that he gained in the second half of the 17th century at the Brandenburger Hof.

Invention and spread

The Brandenburg architect Philip de Chiese is considered the inventor of this very well-known in the Baroque era horse-drawn carriage. He had developed this means of transport for themselves in order to more convenient than with the previously used carriages carry out a mission by his sovereign to Paris can. This car went on the road, but especially in the French capital, that Chiese immediately received such attention several orders for a replica. He presented in the following years ago an undisclosed number of two-horse vehicles and exported them among other things to France, Holland, Poland, Russia and Sweden. The Electress Dorothea used in 1671 also such a carriage. 1683 was the Great Elector on his Paris envoy Ezekiel Spanheim the French Sun King Louis XIV, a gold-plated copy as a gift present including ten horses.

However, the invention by de Chiese is not fully secured, partly also to start manufacturing in France is claimed.

A carefully conducted research by staff of Luisenstädtischer Education Association also points to the development by de Chiese.

The Grammatically - critical dictionary of the High German dialect of Johann Christoph Adelung from 1793 reports: " Philip de Chiese, quartermaster-general and the first architect of the Elector Frederick William the Great, they first made known in Paris. "

Construction and types

The berlins The four-seater coach box was suspended over and not between the very high long- cranked trees, so that the front wheels could be higher and yet undermined. The coach- box had two reaching down to the floor and doors hung in straps on wooden or steel springs. The vehicle was pulled by two horses harnessed nebeneinder. Around the middle of the 18th century, the hanging in C- springs, two-seater half berlins came on, in which the passengers sitting opposite (vis -à- vis). The four-seater were also used as Berlin cabs first class. Towards the end of the 18th century carriages with movable roof were increasingly popular, the city berlins so-called.

The Berline was particularly used as a travel carriage and stagecoach and increasingly displaced during the 18th and 19th century by the similar sprung Landauer, who had the advantage of a fully opened folding roof.

Etymology

In the Académie française dictionary the word appears berline 1718 for a kind of coach with new suspension, softer sprung than other coaches. This is the oldest French dictionary document. In 1721 is executed, the carriages were surfaced a few years ago and brelingue of some or brelinde called. However, It is certainly true berline because they had come from Berlin in Germany. Others would ascribe the invention the Italians. Johann Christoph Gottsched wrote in 1748 about the use of the term Berline by the French:

"Where you got the thing itself from a neighboring nation, as one must also safely the word. Way as the French one striking back coach Berline call because it was invented in Berlin"

In 1771 published memoir of French art carpenter André- Jacob Roubo on the Carpenter states to Wagenbau:

" A second type of modern cars is called berlins, to Berlin, the capital of Prussia, where they were invented ... The berlins are now the most common car and there are several kinds of them ... The actual berlins or berlins à deux fonts for four and half berlins Vis -à-vis for two people ... [ A lighter type of berlins ] is called Carrosse coupe or berlingots, but usually diligence. "

Further use of the name

In today's French, the word berline in the automobile being a closed passenger cars, each with two side windows (whereas a limousine window has three side ) and in mining a mine car. In Italian, Spanish and Portuguese berlina is also the common name for this type of vehicle. The versatile use of the Berline in other countries is most probably back to the time made ​​exports.