THE BMW ENAMEL PLATE dated between 1917-1936 (see photo history of the BMW logo) is in perfect condition, no restoration.

History of the BMW Logo

In 1917, Franz Josef Popp created the BMW brand (Bayerische motoren werke) in Munich on the basis of Rapp Motorenwerke Gmbh founded in 1913, a manufacturer of aircraft engines. At this time, no logo appears. The young company, however, adopted a logo on October 5, 1917.

The first BMW emblem, registered in the Imperial Trademark Register, retained the rounded shape of the old Rapp logo. The outer ring of the symbol is now demarcated by two golden lines and bears the initials BMW.

Airplane and boat engines…

If the company continues its activities in the aeronautical field, it is banking on other outlets: engines for the automobile sector and agriculture, as well as engines for boats. However, the main activity remains the manufacture and maintenance of aircraft engines for the German army.

A period during which BMW is not interested in direct customers; the logo is not essential. However, at the end of the war, in 1918, Germany no longer had the right to build airplanes. We must find other outlets.

For colors, it’s Bavaria

For its new logo, BMW remains faithful to the Bavarian spirit by using the colors of the Free State of Bavaria, white and blue. However, these are arranged upside down – at least if you read the logo clockwise starting at the top left, as is heraldic tradition.

The black outer ring remains with the three letters. The myth of the airplane propeller that the two colors symbolize in the neighborhood dates from the economic crisis of 1929.

It all comes from an ad

In 1929, the company built a new commercial aircraft engine under license from Pratt & Whitney, an American engine manufacturer. To advertise it, BMW produced a document where the company logo was superimposed on the propeller of the plane. The myth was born.

In 1942, BMW itself gave the propeller its credentials. In an in-house publication devoted to aviation engines, an article embroiders on the image of the propeller rotating. An article illustrated with a photo in which the BMW logo appears, again, in a rotating propeller.

A story never denied

BMW has never done anything to deny this legendary story; it has only strengthened the image of the company and has been perpetuated for 90 years now. A legitimation. The logo is now considered one of the most successful in the automotive industry; which justifies that it has evolved little.

Heraldry specialists even justify the initial choices. Black is the personification of elegance, white is a symbol of purity and attractiveness, and blue means reliability; silver is linked to metal.

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