bmw history and the world wars

[e34john]

i was having an arguement with my english teacher with the topic of my research paper. here was my topic bmws history and how it was affected by world war one. he claimed it should have been world war two. i argued that he was wrong so instead of going back and forth forever i decided to do something easy that i already knew about, it is also a lot less fun topic.

back to point the way i always figured it was bmw made plane engines. world war one happened, versailles treaty=no more planes. we gotta make money somehow lets build motorcycles. then came the rebadged/renamed dixies, late '20s i think. early '30s brought success with the 303; and that was well before world war two.

world war two did screw up the german economy but by then bmw was already gaining prestige as a quailty sport sedan builder. so without the disarming of germany after world war one, bmw could still be making plane engines. of course they would have had to switch production after world war two but it was already done after the first war. which was the topic of my paper!

any one have any comments? am i right? wrong? any world history or bmw history people on here. i would love to hear what you guys think.

[Charlie]

No offense man, but do a little research. You'd find a lot of holes in your argument right off the bat. Most of what you just said sounds like you quoted straight out of a Wiki article. There's more to it than that.

WWII destroyed Germany's economy, and the following collapse nearly wiped BMW off the map. Pre WWII, BMW had become a large sedan maker, more akin to a daimler or RR. In the 1950's following the destruction of the European economy, it was the isetta that kept them afloat. This brought about the "Neue Klasse" of cars such as the 2000 sedan, the 1602 and the 2002 - much closer to the traits we associate with a modern BMW.

As for the treaty of Versailles prohibiting German development of aircraft engines, you actually have that to thank when you look at the dominent German racing programs of the late 20's & 30's with Audi, Benz & BMW. A lot of racing historians loathe to admit this, but the great race cars of the 30's under Hitler were really nothing more than test beds for the aircraft engines, most of what was used in the cars went straight into the planes almost un-modified when Germany went to full mobilization. This is why things like the long autobahn speed trials were heavily funded by the government in the mid 30's.

-Charlie

[e34john]

i dont know anything about it, thats why i want to do the paper. its only an entry english class about 2000 words so its nothing major with tons of research. and i don't know that much about world history; just what i learned back in a highschool world history class.

i just figured by the time world war two came around bmw was already making cars. i know the munich plant was destroyed in the war and they were almost screwed postwar if it wasn't for the economical isetta since the country was in a depression. so your saying without the first world war bmw would still have made the switch to automobiles and became a formidable company. instead of it was good that the first war happened because then bmw had the opportunity to look elsewhere to use their expertise thus switching to passenger vehicles and then making more adjustments after the second war?

[BIG$COTT]

c'mon man... im sure you can come up with a better subject for a high school term paper.

[rs4pro3]

BMW even resorted to making pots and pans at one point to keep the americans from destroying what was left of their plants. I would recomend either picking up Driven, or the Ultimate history of BMW as they both have some very good facts about the company, Driven more so then the latter.

[AdironRider]

2000 words is childs play and to give a detailed history in that little amount and still have a good paper would be pretty tough. Find some easy ass topic thatll get you a good grade. Its fucking high school.

[e34john]

damnit zapitastas it is. trying to get on the board while in class doesnt work i guess.