100 Masterpieces. BMW Group – 100 years of innovative strength and entrepreneurial courage” staged in the BMW Museum. +++ Centenary exhibition provides unique insights into one hundred years of dynamic company history

Munich. 2016 is an important year for the BMW Group:
The company recently celebrated its centenary. The BMW Museum in
Munich is now bringing this century of company history alive in all
its facets with the exhibition “100 Masterpieces. BMW Group – 100
years of innovative strength and entrepreneurial courage”. The
exhibition will run until September 2017, giving visitors the
opportunity to find out about the most important vehicles, motor-sport
successes and company decisions of the BMW Group. The new exhibition
provides exciting insights into the historical development and
mobility history from 1916 to 2016. It uses selected “masterpieces” to
take visitors through the individual eras of the past century up to
the present day.

 

100 years of innovative strength and entrepreneurial courage

The history of the BMW Group started with the construction of
aero-engines in 1916. BMW started manufacturing motorcycles in 1923
and the first automobile already rolled out of the production
buildings five years later. Since then the brands and the products
have been fascinating people, arousing emotions and have represented
iconic quality. Yet the success of a company like this cannot simply
be assessed on the basis of the most successful vehicles. Courage, the
readiness to take risks at the highest level of management, milestones
in motor sport, and the special commitment and innovative strength of
employees are absolutely key factors – paradigmatic “masterpieces”. As
highlighted in the title of the exhibition, these “100 masterpieces”
accompany visitors through one hundred years of BMW history. “Bringing
the dynamic history of the company to life across the entire spectrum
was a challenging and fulfilling mission. Yet the unique exhibition
concept enabled us to succeed in choreographing this diversity within
a distinguished framework that showcases each era and each facet of
the company,” commented Gabriele Fink, Head of BMW Museum and
Marketing BMW Group Classic.

 

A time journey through one hundred years of company history

The start of the major exhibition is marked by the first masterpiece
– the establishment of Bayerische Motoren Werke in 1916. Visitors come
into the Museum Bowl through a Time Tunnel and they are
provided with an overview of the last 100 years of historical
development and mobility history illustrated by information panels
showing the individual phases of the company. This short journey
through time is followed by the first exhibits. Most of the exhibits
are curated on a total of five platforms arranged in a timeline, each
of which represents a particular era of company history. However,
these “100 Masterpieces” are not simply restricted to the exhibition
spaces in the Museum Bowl, they also form a continuing theme uniting
the areas of the permanent exhibition in the BMW Museum.

 

Visitors here see more than 30 vehicles including the BMW 328 (1936),
the legendary roadster BMW 507 (1955) and the cult bubble car BMW
Isetta (1955). Design studies like the “Gina” concept car (2008) with
its visionary outer skin made of flexible textile fabric are included
among the exhibits. Theme boards also provide information about
important entrepreneurial milestones like the introduction of BMW
healthcare (1936) and BMW EfficientDynamics (2007). The exhibition
primarily highlights the fact that the employees have always been the
key factor for the success of Bayerische Motoren Werke with their
passion and enthusiasm. This is still the case today. Equal prominence
is given to engineering achievements and the most important motor
sport successes like the Paris-Dakar Rally (1981). The very special
exhibition experience of “100 Masterpieces” is complemented by
interesting stories, valuable small exhibits, virtually unknown film
clips and photographs, and informative drawings.

 

The exhibition entitled “100 Masterpieces. BMW Group – 100 years of
innovative strength and entrepreneurial courage” runs from 10 March
2016 to the end of September 2017 in the BMW Museum. Entry costs 10
euros. The BMW Museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday and on public
holidays from 10:00 to 18:00.

 

Additional information can be found at: www.bmw-museum.de