The Dandy-Horse by Carl Baron Drais of Sauerbronn Born at Karlsruhe in 1785 as the son of a senior court judge, Drais joined the Forest Service of the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1805 after having studied mathematics, physics, architecture and agriculture for two years at Heidelberg University. In 1810 he was appointed district forest officer and in the following year granted leave for an indefinite period.

It was in Mannheim that his career as an inventor began. On August 21st, 1817 he filed an application for a patent on his dandy-horse with Grand Duke Karl, and on January 12th, 1818 he was granted the "Grand-Ducal Privilege". For some of his contemporaries, his invention was nothing but the object of mockery. And yet the supposed "mad baron", who died impoverished and lonely at Karlsruhe in 1851, has by no means left us a "useless ridiculous thing". His invention, not based on any model from nature itself, is a key innovation on the path to individual mobility, a forerunner not only of the bicycle, but also of the automobile.