ca. 1200

Traditional flag of Bavaria; white and blue lozenges. There were always several versions of this flag - some of them had just two wide vertical or horizontal white and blue stripes (as on official Bavarian Republic 1919 flag) .

 after 1900

    Logo of the Bayern Football Club established in 1900.  Hated by the Nazis as the Jewish club - FC Bayern Munich had from the beginning Bavarian lozenges in its logo.

Bayerische Flugzeug-Werke (Bavarian Arircraft Works) was created.  The company uses the letters BFW as a short form of its name.  First roundels are in use, still without the letters at the top..

An artistic vision of an inspiration behind the BMW roundel.  A drawing executed for the BMW  advert from 1929, explains the idea behind the logo: a silver propeler blades turn with  high speed creating an illusion of an object. A publication in 1942 by Wilhelm Fahrenkopf confirms the airplane propeller as an  inspiration of the logo, but this information might habe been infulenced by the fact that because of the war BMW had to concentrate on the production of the aircraft engines while car production has been braught to a halt

1917

0n October 5, 1917  Franz-Josef Popp registers the BMW logo in the Germany's  Imperial Trademark Roll under the Number: 221388

Bayerische Motoren Werke G.m.b.H. was created in 1917 and transformed in March of 1918 into the public company BMW AG. Being  originally the aircraft engine company, while Germany as a result of the Treaty of Versaille (June of 1919) was not allowed to produce the airplanes,  BMW stepped into the production of motorycles and later cars.

On the left one of the first BMW emblem's in use. First emblems were 6,1 cm big, casted by Plafa Factory  in Jena, with emaille colors, white, blue, black and metal gold. They were fixed on the motorcycles with two screws.

BMW roundel on a R42 motorcycle

.

 More decorative, with ornamental letter BMW emblem on the first BMW car - model Dixi from 1928.

   an illustration with the BMW logo from a brochure of the BMW model 3/20: the letters are simplified and presented without serifs.

   Simple thin yellow letters without serifs, blue and white fields equal, the logo is surrounded by a decorative rim.

 BMW badge on the 309 model from 1934.

1936

 BMW logo in a 328 model brochure. Please note that the letter types have changed.

                BMW roundel on a motorcycle from 1939. The letters stay very close together. Yellow color comes from brass layer on the emblem's front. Letter 'B' got slightly modernized.

A BMW motorcycle roundel from 1940.

The letters remain apart, they grow bigger. Golden color has been replaced by silver.

A roundel on a  BMW car during  the WWII, at the end of the civil cars production.

 ca. 1949

Again  the letters in gold, but this is a motorcycle roundel.

A roundel on the BMW  motorcycle just after the WWII. BMW as one of the companies working for the Nazi Germany war effort,  was  not allowed to produce cars at the time. Only in Eisenach in East Germany, in the Soviet Occupation Zone the cars were produced, initially under the BMW badge and from 1952 under the EMW brand (Eisenacher Motorenwerk) and with the red white lozenges logo. The total of 30 400 cars were produced at Eisenach up to the end of 1955, stemming out of BMW constructions.

     The BMW logo on a motorcycle R 51/3 tank emblem. Letters became smaller and they are placed more to the top of the roundel.

 1955   

BMW logo on Isetta car.

 1955   

 A version of the  BMW logo in a factory publication, at the time of Isetta car.

Please note that the letters lost its serifs and that the letter B has a distinctive design while other letters were simplified.

      BMW roundel as the actual emblem on the car's body.  Letter B becomes uniformed with other letters. All  letters become bolder. A wide silver chrome ring was added on the outside. Blue lozenges are a bit bigger than white.

 BMW roundel logo with an additional chrome ring around.

Motorcycle emblem with two screws and a small silver ring around while blue and white lozenges get equal.

after 1970

 Simple, bold letters are used.  The inside white and blue lozenges are bigger in proportion to the letters. The outside ring becomes thin.

Since ca.1995 BMW begins to use three-dimensional logo on its all  brand publications.

1979

The actual BMW badge on a BMW 628 CSi E24 car. The badge remains unchanged.

  2008

BMW badge today.  Since 1971 changes if there are any, are almost not noticeable. The black ring became slightly thinner and as a result letters became smaller and more separated.

  1934 -  1939

   Frazer-Nash has been an official BMW importer in England befor the WW2. The firm imported BMW cars in elements and assembled giving them its name. With the beginning of the WW2 by Germany, England defending Poland declared war on Hitler's Germany and Frazer-Nash BMW logo has not been used anymore. After the war Bristol and Frazer-Nash continued building BMW cars, sometimes only with minor changes, but the roundel has not been used.

1946 -  1953

 1952 - 1955

   2005-2009

 Chinese car maker BYD has been inspired not only by the BMW cars styling, but also by the BMW roundel. Not only BYD F6 car looks very similar to the BMW 7 series, BYD's roundel reminds us the emblem of BMW, but technically BMW and BYD cars are worlds apart.. Things change fast in China and today the BYD is at the forefront of the electric car research, it has Warren Buffet with $232 million as an investor and a new logo, which this time looks more like the one of the Korean car maker KIA. Amazingly thousands of cars BYD produces today still bear the old white and blue flattened roundel. We understand why.

1978-1981

 An attempt to create a separate emblem for the BMW Motorsport division cars. A similar design version, but in grey and black, has been already used by BMW on a steering wheel of  M1 (E25; 1978-1981), and on E12 M535i (1980-1981), but never on body nor wheels of the cars. The idea has been forsaken on M635 CSi (E24; 1984-1989).

Now a private initiative tries to introduce a color version of this roundel.

2006

 BMW roundel generated through the laser light show.

   Several firms propose today a BMW roundel with a carbon inlay. Pity for the blue...

   2008

  Global  economic crisis is also a crisis of values: here is the BMW badge inlaid with Swarovski white and blue crystals.

The reverse side  of the pre-war BMW emblem with the name of the Plafa Factory in Jena which did the casting.

BMW badge today: the back side. The part number: 51 14 8 132 375 is marked on the plaque.

The old part number has been: 51 14 1 872 324