Munich, March 2010
The BMW-Museum in Munich right beside the corporate
headquarters first opened in 1973. The heritage protected building
by the architect Prof. Karl Schwanzer has become one of the
town´s landmarks called “Museums-Schüssel” ( “museums bowl”
) and featured the company´s history for about 30 years. In 2002
the lack of exhibition space made a new concept necessary.
Whereas other companies decided in the same period the
construction of a totally new museum for one or the other reason
BMW made the decision to extend the existing building. The bowl
itself was restored back in the original state and the close-by flat-
roofed part of the headquarters was added to increase the
available space from about 1000 sq.m to more than 5000 sq.m.
The original bowl now contains the temporary exhibition and the
new part of the museum has become the permanent part of the
exhibition. The museum now features more than 120 exhibits.
The permanent exhibition consists of seven separate houses
containing seven different aspects of the heritage. These houses
are arranged round a central place and interconnected by ramps
to give a three-dimensional tour through the different rooms of
these houses. During this tour you cross the central place several
times from different directions to get different impressions of the
architecture. The ramps are covered with a special sort of tarmac
to give the appeal of being on the road. The houses itself are
covered with a special façade consisting of milk glass and
millions of LEDs to enlighten the interior. The façades at the
central space are changing the light and their content
permanently to generate a dynamic rather than a static display.
The first house is dedicated to the design. In the first room of the
tour one can see an innovative illustration of the design of the cars
over the last decades. Small balls are visually wafting in the room
to show a metamorphosis between different cars of different eras.
The second floor is dedicated to the design division and shows a
working clay model of the current 1-series and a design study of
the interior. The bottom floor is the “treasury” with 3 examples of
cars and motorbikes from the past to the future design.
Beside the design the second main focus of BMW has always
been an advanced technology. So it is no surprise that the
second house is dedicated to this part of the history.
BMW was founded as the “Bayerische Motorenwerke” (“Bavarian
Engine Works”) in 1916 to produce aero engines, so it is not a
surprise that the emblem of BMW symbolizes a turning propeller
in the blue sky. Some early examples of these aero engines are
displayed in the engine gallery.
With the end of the first world war and the ban of the production of
military products in the Treaty of Versailles BMW had to seek for
other scopes than aero engines. In 1923 the first motor bike (the
R32) and in 1928 the first car was introduced but the engine
always stayed a main aspect of all following BMW products. So
the engine gallery with some of their most successful examples
and a separate room for the different innovations in this sector are
the main rooms of this house. Further rooms are dedicated to the
lightweight construction and the aerodynamic.
From this point the history spreads into the construction of motor
bikes and cars. One house shows the development of the
motorbikes over the last 87 years from the first example R32 to
the latest models. The car section is divided in the different series
rather than different eras. It is very interesting to see the
development of the luxury series (the “7”) side by side presented
on a very noble wooden floor. Another room is dedicated to the
sportive M-series including the legendary M1 and the still popular
M3 and M5. One of the most beautiful rooms in the museums
features the very sympathetic Isetta and the BMW 2002. The cars
are illuminated by some lamps in 70s style and surrounded by
hundreds of contemporary pictures showing these cars as part of
the owners family.
The most interesting house for some visitors might be the
motorsport section. Unfortunately the room is very limited so
there are just few exhibits. The BMW 328 MM Touring Coupé that
won the Mille Miglia in 1940 might be the most interesting
example of this very successful pre-war 327/328 series. The
BMW 328 was the dominant 2 litre car right before the war and is
still very sought-after today. As the original coupé car can be
seen in motion at events like today's Mille Miglia or on display at
the Concorso d´Eleganza sponsored by BMW at the Villa d´Este
the visitor of the museum has to put up with a replica of this car.
Unfortunately there is not enough space to present other
derivatives like the MM Spider or an “ordinary” roadster.
The formula 1 is represented by the first world championship
winning BMW-powered car, the Brabham BT52 and one of the
last of the BMW-Sauber era, the F1.06.
More important for BMW than the formula 1 is the touring car
racing history as this clearly shows the sporting ambition of BMW
street cars from the 1966 BMW 2000 TI to the new M3 GTR.
Further houses show the chronology of the company. This
includes the development of the brand from the beginning as an
aero engine manufacturer to the international operating company
plus the development of the production. This also includes the
darker part of the history with the forced labour during the war, a
part of the history that is not always shown that unvarnished in
Germany, even 65 years after the war.
So the conclusion of our visit is that this museum has a very
different approach to the theme than some others. Compared to
the new museums of Porsche and Mercedes-Benz it is much
more unimposing from the outside leaving this to the nearby
BMW World, a very modern glass architecture. On the other side
the architecture is much more part of the concept on the inside.
Whereas the Porsche-Museum with its plain white interior leaves
all attention on the cars the BMW-Museum intends to be a
complete artwork. This makes the museum more interesting for
all those who are not purely focused on the cars (or bikes) and
gives you more different impressions. On the other side one could
have the opinion that in some stages the cars are faded from the
spotlight by the architecture, at least the architecture is very
consumptive of space. So some important cars are missing due
to the lack of space even in the new museum.
But this is the concept of the future with more multimedia that did
not even stop from the Schlumpf Collection that was the epitome
of the pure car museum in the past.
Text & images: Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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