Do you really know the propeller builder? BMW recently clarified its position on the meaning of its logo. And it is certainly not what you imagine … We therefore offer you a little retrospective to find your way around.
“A lot of people think that the BMW logo represents a stylized propeller. The truth is however different ”, explained Fred Jakobs by BMW Group Classic. Indeed, with a somewhat hazardous communication and its past as an engine manufacturer, the German manufacturer has developed false ideas about its logo.
It all starts in 1916 when two pioneers of German aviation, Karl Rapp and Gustav Otto, decide to create the BFW. This denomination will last only one year before the company changes its name and already becomes BMW (Bavarian Motor Works). The “Bavarian engine factory” then begins its activities in Munich in 1917, capital of Bavaria in southern Germany.
It’s in 1918 that the logo will appear for the first time on the cover of an official document. Then manufacturer of aircraft engines especially during the First World War, the brand offers a professional manual. This is addressed to the pilots of the Bavaria FlugMotor, company assigned to the city.
Must wait 1923 to see the logo appear on a land vehicle. But it’s a motorcycle, the R32, who will wear the badge first. BMW motorcycle still exists today with a host of models. Then, it will appear on all cars of the brand, from the 3/15 PS of 1927 up to the new i4 and iX. Almost 100 years therefore that the colors white and blue proudly sit on the hoods of German cars.
It is very likely that you will find this “logical” answer in the collective imagination. Blame it on BMW who never contraindicated this information. The misunderstanding comes from a advertising exit in 1929. A plane traded its propeller for the manufacturer’s logo, which pretended to be turning. In the midst of a stock market crash, the goal was to promote the efficiency of its new engines developed jointly with the American company Pratt & Whitney.
This is not all since the Munich firm continued to promote its engineering in aeronautics with this logo. In 1942, a new advertisement still used it instead of the rotor of a fighter plane. This definitely confirmed the interpretation of the BMW logo as being a propeller. And even the communication of the time went in this direction and confirmed this explanation. Strange…
So what does this logo mean? The answer is very simple : the colors blue and white, in checkerboard, simply represent the flag of Bavaria, where the manufacturer is from. These are just reversed (if you read the logo clockwise) because the law prohibited the use of national emblems for logos. Now you know everything and you can not go wrong!
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