page_title: Siegfried Marcus
section_title: Nazi rewrite
hierarchical_section_title: Siegfried Marcus / Nazi rewrite
caption_attribution_description: Denkmal für Siegfried Marcus am Karlsplatz (Resselpark)
context_page_description: Siegfried Samuel Marcus was a German inventor. Marcus was born of Jewish descent in Malchin, in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He made several petrol-powered vehicles, the first one in 1864, while living in Vienna, Austria.
context_section_description: Because of Marcus' Jewish ancestry, his name and all memorabilia, particularly in Austria, vanished under the Nazis. In 1937 the Austrian Harand Movement Against Racial Hatred had issued a series of stamps featuring prominent Jews, including Marcus, who had contributed to mankind in response to the Ewiger Jude (eternal Jew) exhibition by Julius Streicher in Munich. Marcus was credited as having invented the petrol driven motor car. With the German occupation of Austria in March 1938, the memorial in front of the Vienna Technical University was removed. After World War II, the monument was rebuilt and his car, which had been hidden, was returned to display.
  Marcus was removed from German encyclopedias as the inventor of the modern car, under a directive from the German Ministry for Propaganda during World War II. His name was replaced with the names of Daimler and Benz. The directive (in German) read as follows:
  Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda
  Geschäftszeichen. S 8100/4.7.4.0/7 1
  Berlin W8, den 4. Juli 1940
  
  Wilhelmplatz 8-9
  An die Direktion der Daimler-Benz-A.G. Stuttgart-Untertürkheim
  Betrifft: Eigentlichen Erfinder des Automobils
  
  Auf Ihr Schreiben vom 30. Mai 1940 Dr.Wo/Fa.
  
  Das Bibliographische Institut und der Verlag F.A. Brockhaus sind darauf hingewiesen worden, dass in Meyers Konversations Lexikon und im Großen Brockhaus künftig nicht Siegfried Marcus, sondern die beiden deutschen Ingenieure Gottlieb Daimler und Carl Benz als Schöpfer des modernen Kraftwagens zu bezeichnen sind.
  In English this would be
   Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
  Reference number S 8100 / 4.7.4.0 / 7 1
  Berlin  W8,  4 July 1940 
  
  Wilhelmsplatz 8-9
  To the Directorate of Daimler-Benz A.G. Stuttgart-Untertürkheim
  Subject: True inventor of the automobile 
  
  Referring to your letter of 30 May 1940 Dr.Wo / Fa.
  The Bibliographical Institute and the publisher F. A. Brockhaus have been notified that 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
  .
  Current Austrian thinking is that Marcus' first car ran in the late 1880s. However, early publications suggest that he may have had a petrol powered vehicle running earlier than 1870. The deliberate destruction of evidence of Marcus' inventions by the Nazi regime has left these dates open to debate and speculation. Britannica cites 1864 for Marcus' first car with a 10-year gap to the second, which is consistent with other sources.
caption: Monument at Vienna Technical Museum
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