Berlin (carriage)

History

The carriage was designed around 1660 or 1670 by a Piedmontese architect commissioned by the General quartermaster to Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, who used the carriage to travel 1,054 km (654.9 mi) from Berlin to Paris, where his carriage created a sensation.

While some heavy-duty vehicles had used double perches before, passenger vehicles had normally used a single perch. The elegant but durable style was widely copied and named "berline" after the city from which the carriage had come. It was more convenient than other carriages of the time, being lighter and less likely to overturn. The berline began to supplant the less practical and less comfortable state coaches and gala coaches in the 17th century.

In the 18th century, steel springs became widely used in carriage suspensions, supplanting the berline's twin-strap suspension system. The term "berline" survived as a description of the formal or ceremonial body style with two bench seats facing each other in an enclosed carriage.

Berlin coupé

Smaller carriages were developed from the berline by removing the rear-facing front seat, keeping a single forward-facing seat, and shortening the body. Sometimes a very small fold-down seat was installed to accommodate young children in the carriage. This style was known as the berline coupé (cut berline) in French, halbberline (half berlin) in German, and also berlinet or berlinette. Berlin coupé was often shortened to coupé.

Automobile

The berline body style initially carried over from the carriage to the automobile with the chauffeur in the open at the front and an enclosure behind with two seats facing each other as opposed to facing forward. As with the coupé and the brougham, the term evolved with the movement of the driver and controls into an enlarged enclosure, which resulted in turning the front seat to face forward. The term berline is now the French term for the saloon, or sedan.

Notes

References

Sources

References

1. {{Cite EB1911
2. Haajanen, Lennart W.. (2007). "Illustrated Dictionary of Automobile Body Styles". McFarland & Company.
3. Morawski, Jerzy. (September 16, 2015). "One zawsze będą piękne". [[Newsweek Polska]].
4. Smith, D.J.M.. (1988). "A Dictionary of Horse Drawn Vehicles". J. A. Allen & Co. Ltd..