Given the prominent role that Germany has played in the development of the modern automobile industry, it is not surprising that there are over a dozen commercial and private automobile museums across the country including museums linked to Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz/Damiler and BMW. While the most spectacular of the car museums in Germany may possibly be the Porsche Museum designed by the Viennese firm Delugan Meissl Associated Architects and opened in 2009, the BMW Museum in Munich is older and is closely linked with the company headquarters and BMW Welt (BMW World).
The museum was originally established in 1973 opposite the Olympic Park (Olympiapark). It demonstrates the history and technological innovation of BMW with displays of engines and turbines, aircraft, motorcycles, and vehicles, including futuristic design studies from the past 20 years and is the third popular museum in terms of visitor numbers for museums in Munich.
Known as the “salad bowl” or “white cauldron”, the space-age building was designed by the architect Karl Schwanzer along with the BMW Headquarters. It was refurbished and expanded to 12,200 sq m between 206 and 2008 at a cost of 80 million euros to provide a dynamic exhibition area with street, squares, bridges and seven thematic houses around the central BMW Platz. Through innovative use of programmable LED lighting, the illusion of movement can be created in the square and the 120-plus exhibits. Recently, the Museum held its first ever exhibition of Rolls Royce cars entitled “Strive for Perfection”.
Adjacent to the museum is the newer and architecturally-spectacular building, BMW Welt (BMW World), designed by architects Coop Himmelblau and opened in October 2007 at a cost of US$200 million. This building is not a museum which celebrates heritage, but rather an exhibition and visitor centre that looks forward and it is here that customers can choose and take delivery of their new cars. Spectacularly successful, there were 2,200,000 visitors during the first 12 months of operation which increased to 2,930,000 in 2013 which demonstrates how much we still retain our fascination with the technology and design of motor vehicles.
