The BMW Museum in Munich, situated right below the BMW ‘Four Piston’ headquarters is home to BMW’s rich heritage in aircraft engines, motorcycles, automobile racing, and of course, cars. The museum also showcases the technologies of future which may be employed in BMW’s upcoming machines. We had the opportunity of visiting the museum, whose building is also known as ‘the Bowl’ owing to its unique shape. The ‘Four Pistons’ building and BMW Museum were designed by the Viennese architect, professor Karl Schwanzer.
Opened in 1973, the BMW Museum is one of the oldest automobile museums in Germany. It features over 120 original exhibits from the brand’s more than 90-year history, arranged into 25 focus topics in separate exhibition areas. The museum witnesses up to 500,000 visitors a year – making it one of the most popular museums in all of Munich.
In addition to watching and getting awed by the exhibits, visitors to the BMW Museum have the opportunity to buy merchandise, postcards, rare items, books and models in the adjacent museum store. The BMW Museum also dishes out exquisitely prepared culinary delights in its M1 Café.
Here we have some images of the key exhibits at the iconic museum, which is considered to be a ‘national monument’ by the government of Germany. We hope you enjoy the images of the exhibits as much as we enjoyed the tour. The article has an exhaustive image gallery from the museum at the end. Don’t forget to have a look at the gallery, and do let us know how you liked the article.
You are welcomed by the 1972 BMW Turbo, the first ever turbocharged BMW car ever. It laid the foundation to the M1 supercar, the only BMW supercar ever
BMW was initially a maker of aircraft engines. This engine created the record for attaining the highest altitude in its time. BMWs engines were known to be much more powerful, efficient and reliable than its competition
And then, a bunch of motorcycle enthusiast engineers decided they wanted to create motorcycle engines as well. They proposed the idea to the top honchos, which was approved, and the result was this. The first ever BMW engine for motorcycles – as you’d imagine, a boxer!
And this is where it was put – in the BMW R32 motorcycle, the first ever tw0-wheeler from the company
It didn’t take long before BMW decided that it was capable enough to create four-wheelers as well. And this is what the effort resulted in – the Dixi 3/15 PS with 750cc and about 15 bhp. A humble beginning for a company which would dominate the world of car engines for a very long time to come.
Next page for even more exciting exhibits from the BMW Museum>>>