The BMW Museum features every kind of vehicle, from the motorcycle to the sedan
Janis Joplin overlooked BMW when she sang about her friends’ luxury car driving habits, but the snub did the company no harm. Today the products of the Bayerische Motoren Werke are among the world’s most sought-after luxury automobiles with a “Beamer” being the first driving choice of everyone from Tom Cruise and Tiger Woods to James Bond and the Russian mafia. The BMW Museum—housed in a large silver hemisphere, known locally as the Salatschüssel (the salad bowl), near the Olympic Park—traces the history of this Bavarian icon from its beginnings as an aircraft engine manufacturer during World War I to its emergence as a motorcycle and, later, car manufacturer. While the emphasis at the museum is on BMW products, this does not seem to have affected its popularity. Quite the reverse is true, in fact. Some 250,000 people visit the BMW museum each year, making it the third most popular Munich attraction—trailing behind only the Deutsches Museum and the Neue Pinakothek. On display are classic old-timers, as well as the latest, technically up-to-date models, including design studies of futuristic touring sedans and motorcycles. Among the vehicles featured in the exhibition are an old Wartburg from 1900, the winning motorcycle in the 1984 Paris-Dakar Endurance Rally, and a BMW Isetta 250, a curious three-wheel, two-seat vehicle entered via a single door at the front. Racing vehicles are well represented and include a March BMW, six times European Champion in the 1970s, a BMW M1 and a BMW 500 cc world record sidecar motorcycle in which Wilhelm Noll set an absolute world record for three-wheeled vehicles in 1954: 280.22 km/h (173.74 mph). BMW first made its mark on the international stage in the 1920s, when its vehicles dominated the European road rallies. A key figure in this success was Ernst Henne, who set 76 world records and was the first man to exceed the 200 km/h mark. His bike, a BMW 750 cc, is also featured here. The museum is not, however, simply a presentation of historical BMWs and engines. The curators also address the wider themes of travel and mankind’s fascination with the automobile. Traditionally, every four years an artist is commissioned to bring the exhibition up to date. Rolf Zehetbauer, a film architect and winner of an Oscar for Artistic Achievement for the film Cabaret, is responsible for the latest futuristic design. The current exhibition is called “Zeithorizont” (Horizon in Time) and stretches from the beginning of the 20th century to the middle of this millennium. The theme is how individual mobility created by modern technology has affected our society, our thoughts and even our dreams. A total of 24 video films and 10 slide shows are presented throughout the exhibition, with a cinema-scope show rounding off the tour. Each display area is, as you would expect, filled with race and prototype cars, but interspersed with video presentations that explain BMW’s philosophy and technical accomplishments. Other videos and slides illustrate the history of the automobile and its place in our lives, as well as future impressions. One presentation, “Science fiction in the Good Old Days,” shows excerpts of old films based on the stories of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, revealing how the future was once imagined. Another exhibition, “02,” focuses on BMW’s successful 02 series, which was developed from the 1950s onwards. At the time, BMW faced a serious crisis of falling demand, which threatened the company’s immediate future. Clever marketing and publicity saved the company and, in the process, changed the public image of BMW so that the car “no longer represented membership of a particular social class but the attitudes of its owner, ‘demanding, but not exclusively so.’” Both the BMW Museum and the nearby BMW administrative building—symbolically shaped as an over-sized four-cylinder engine—were designed by the Viennese architect, Karl Schwanzer in 1972. Inside the distinctive museum, the exhibits are displayed on a gently sloping ramp that spirals up inside the building. A visit to the BMW Museum can also be combined with a tour of the assembly line (Tel. [089] 38 22 33 06). It is possible to arrange this at short notice, but anyone on a tight schedule should book in advance. Oh, and as far as Janice Joplin is concerned, BMW had the last laugh. Her song was used in 2000 as part of an ironic advertisement campaign to promote the successful BMW Z3 roadster. Opening hours: daily 9 am–5 pm (last entry at 4 pm). Admission: € 3. The museum can be reached by U-Bahn (take the U2 or U3 towards Olympiazentrum and get off at Petuelring) or by car (Petuelring 130; Tel. [089] 3822 5652 or 3307).