Living a lie: BMW logo not based on spinning propeller

[Sayyaaf]

Living a lie: BMW logo not based on spinning propeller

01/08/2010, 4:30 PM

By Drew Johnson





Ask any automotive enthusiasts what the BMW logo is supposed to depict and you’ll likely hear a spinning propeller blade set against a blue sky background. That answer is universally accepted but, as it turns out, is completely wrong.

The BMW logo is widely accepted as a throwback to the days when Bayerische Motoren Werke produced airplane engines, but BMW’s roundel actually has nothing to do with the company’s aviation roots.
Thanks to a trip to the BMW Museum in Munich, The New York Times discovered the BMW logo is actually based on the colors of the Free State of Bavaria, not a spinning airplane propeller. As it turns out, the association between the logo and an airplane propeller stems from a 1929 advertisement – a full 12 years after the logo was trademarked.

“The design was not in any way connected with aircraft engines or propellers,” according to a history published on BMW Motorrad UK. “The idea that the blue and white had anything to do with spinning propellers comes from a 1929 advertisement, which featured aircraft with the image of the roundel in the rotating propellers.”
The BMW logo was actually created in 1917 as a tribute to the Free State of Bavaria. However, at the time it was illegal to use national symbols in commercial trademarks, hence the opposite order of the white and blue quadrants.

Making everything official, BMW North America spokesman Dave Buchko has confirmed the logo is not based on a spinning airplane propeller, but rather the colors of the Free State of Bavaria. Kind of makes you feel like up might actually be down, no?

 

[PanterroR]

I have doubts in this...

 

[aleks_16]

I knowd that before . Thats not a propeller, thats the flag of Bayern

 

[EnI]

The departure of Karl Rapp enabled a fundamental restructuring of BMW GmbH, formerly Rapp Motorenwerke. While the development side was placed under Max Friz, Franz Josef Popp took over the post of Managing Director. Popp held this key position until his retirement in 1942, and was instrumental in shaping the future of BMW.


The name-change to Bayerische Motoren Werke compelled management to devise a new logo for the company, therefore the famous BMW trademark is designed and patented at this time. However, they remained true to the imagery of the previous Rapp Motorenwerke emblem (which was designed by Karl's brother, Ottmar Rapp). Thus, both the old and the new logo were built up in the same way: the company name was placed in a black circle, which was once again given a pictorial form by placing a symbol within it. The inner area of the Rapp logo was decorated with the head of a black horse – "Rappe" in German. By analogy with this, the blue and white panels of the Bavarian national flag were placed at the center of the BMW logo.

The BMW Trademark, called a "roundel", was submitted for registration on the rolls of the Imperial Patent Office, and registered there with no. 221388 on 10 Dec 1917.The trade mark was intended for the following goods: "Land, air and seagoing vehicles, automobiles, bicycles, accessories for automobiles and bicycles, vehicle components, stationary engines for solid, liquid and gaseous fuels and their components and accessories"

In 1929 the logo got a new interpretation as representing a rotating propeller, first pictured in a print ad.

History of BMW - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[LaArtist]

Damn all the coolness got lost..

 

[EnI]

Damn all the coolness got lost..

????

It's not like it was a top secret. It never has been.

It's a well know fact. Available to the general public for decades. Even on History of BMW - Wikipedia or eg. on BMW Group Archive or BMW History : Introduction

But some "automotive media" had made hype of the myth of BMW logo depicting propeller to the degree they started to believe the myth was actually a true fact.

Here is the original print ad (front cover of BMW news magazine) from the end of 1929 - depicting propeller for the first time:



The BMW logo - derived from original Rapp roundel logo & Bavarian state (flag) colors - was trademarked 12 years earlier. So, the BMW logo as propeller is merely an advertising creation from 1929.

 

[LaArtist]

^well in this case ignorance is a bliss..

 

[EnI]

^well in this case ignorance is a bliss..

As I said many times: do not believe media. Do your own research instead. It's very easy these days. Using Google, Wikipedia etc.

Info for original source is much better than the info brought to you by media - since mind "media" are specific people: journalist(s) who did a research, attended the press conference, and wrote an article - as a summary of the info (s)he had found / got.



Cross-checking the info from media is essential today. Except you want to stay / be blissed via being ignorant.

Sometimes bliss is a bless.

 

[Khaled]

Thanks for the info, this sets the course staight.

On the other hand, no need for anyone to take this with any disappointment. To quote Jay Leno: "This is a stunning claim, because if it turns out to be true, it would make no differene whatsoevere. The course of history would be exactly the same. Nothing would change"

 

[Kowalski]

I don't mean to be rude, but who the **** cares whether if the badge is based on a spinning propeller or not?

 

[LaArtist]

It just sounds cool
But who cares really like you say..
BMW is BMW..
Still gay

 

[EnI]

.
BMW is BMW..
Still gay

And today being gay is totally OK.

So, BMW = gay = OK.

No harm done.

 

[rollo]

Or using the original meaning of the word, gay = happy = joy = BMW.

 

[Sunny]

This is news? I thought it was well known that propeller thing is myth.

 

[Yperion]

Ha ha , many funny comments in this thread...

To be fair who cares if it's a spinning propeller or not? It's the car behind the badge that counts...

 

[klier]

Yannis, good to see you back man! We miss you, post more!

This is news? I thought it was well known that propeller thing is myth.

It isn't. There's even a thread about right here on GCF.

What's more interesting, and what I didn't know, is that the red bar in the M logo finds it's way back all the way to Texaco, who was a sponsor for BMW at the time they made the logo....

 

[Giannis]

What's more interesting, and what I didn't know, is that the red bar in the M logo finds it's way back all the way to Texaco, who was a sponsor for BMW at the time they made the logo....

True! You can read more in this informative article from BMWBlog:

Click

 

[Giannis]

Here is a very important article on this subject, from the BMW Mobile Tradition magazine, exported to jpeg from pdf format. If you want the pdf file, please PM me.

 

[klier]

^Not working

Link us to the pdf instead Should be an interesting read!

 

[Giannis]

It's on my hard drive.

I must leave now. I will rehost the images when I come back in 3-4 hours.