Bmw map of west Germany

[Slash2]

Found this gem tucked into a small blue sleeve with an R69S manual and thought it was neat enough to frame. I've never seen another and was wondering if anyone knew anything about it.

Cheers,

Chris

[miller6997]

That's a fascinating map, with all of the roads and streets in the east expunged. I've never seen another, but it may be common with bikes that were expected to stay in Germany.

[Darryl.Richman]

This map has the old, serif letter roundel, so it must have been produced before 1966. You said it came with an R69S, but didn't mention the year. The R69S model came out in 1961, the year the Berlin Wall went up. One thing I find curious is that the map doesn't show West Berlin, which was a part of the BRD. If I recall correctly, there were two roads you could take from the BDR through the DDR to West Berlin.

To me, it looks like the DDR was treated as other neighboring countries, and is only included because Bavaria sticks out so far east. Notice that the far southeast of the DDR is cut off.

But the DDR, and the little slice of west Poland that is visible, both have the same background color as the BDR, and different from the other countries that are visible. Is this because those areas all used to be part of Germany?

By looking at the extent of the Autobahn system on the map, one could probably accurately date it. None of the autobahns or highways are marked, but from my travels, I can see a number of places where there are autobahns today (or even 30 years ago) but aren't shown on the map. For example, the A8, which for more than the last 20 years, has run from Karlsruhe on the French border, through Stuttgart, Ulm and Augsburg to Munich, doesn't have the part from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart. The A7, which crosses the A8 near Ulm and runs south to Kempten on the Austrian border, isn't on the map at all; neither is the A81 that runs through Wuerzburg. If I spent more time, I could probably find more, and then I could probably chase down when those were built...

[strichzwei]

But the DDR, and the little slice of west Poland that is visible, both have the same background color as the BDR, and different from the other countries that are visible. Is this because those areas all used to be part of Germany?

Politics maybe? West Germany never "officially" recognized East Germany as a separate country. In fact, the German "Hallstein Doctrine" threatened to break off diplomatic ties with any country that recognized East Germany as a separate country.

That doesn't quite explain why part of Poland is colored the same though.........

[Slash2]

I found the manual on Craigslist a few years back and recall the seller had recently sold his R69S but hadn't been able to find the manual until months later. As to the year of his bike, I never thought to ask, and if I did, I certainly don't remember. It would make sense that the map would come with bikes built for the German market and a very cool idea at that. I love the idea of strolling into a dealer back in the 60's, picking up a brand new R69S, and hitting the roads with my handy map perhaps tucked into the top compartment of a nice Schorsch Meier Sport tank.

Speaking of, it seems they're getting about as rare as hens teeth as I've been looking for a nice one for months with no luck. The last one I saw hit ebay that didn't look like it rolled a few hundred yards down a highway was eagerly bid up to $2500 on the first or second day of a 7 day auction with zero additional bids(I don't understand this strategy). There are a few listed now surprisingly but both are quite rough. My /2 is an absolutely gorgeous original paint bike and I would LOVE to add a Meier Sport tank someday. If anyone has one collecting dust on the shelf and would like to sell it at a fair price, please let me know!

[niall4473]

West Berlin was never a part of the German Federal Republic until reunification, hence it would not be shown on a map of it. I have a similar map which came with my Dad's new R60 in 1960 which was an official UK import, I shall root it out and compare it, if I can find it.
Possibly BMW themselves had an attitude towards the DDR, since they prevented their own factory at Eisenach (though under DDR state control), from using the BMW trademark in 1949, although they also wanted it back, until they got it...

[R68]

I have a copy of that map, pasted into the booklet supplied with the motorcycle "BMW Dienst in Europa", dated 12/63. Poland, or the eastern territories is colored as it is because in those days it was not clear that West Germany had relinquished claims to it former territories east of Oder-Neisse. As you may know, and although present day Germany had done so, many folks in rural Poland still think the little men in feldgrau will someday return. I'm told that it's difficult to get Czechs to settle in far western Czech Republic, formerly known as the Sudetenland, for similar reasons. Of course, none of this is ever discussed in the Anglo-Saxon press but I'd expect the Russians are well aware of these feelings too? Sorry for off BMW discussion.

[Darryl.Richman]

West Berlin was never a part of the German Federal Republic until reunification, hence it would not be shown on a map of it. I have a similar map which came with my Dad's new R60 in 1960 which was an official UK import, I shall root it out and compare it, if I can find it.
Possibly BMW themselves had an attitude towards the DDR, since they prevented their own factory at Eisenach (though under DDR state control), from using the BMW trademark in 1949, although they also wanted it back, until they got it...

Really? I would like to know more about this.

BMW bought out a company called BRAMO just before WWII as a part of their research on building jet engines. BRAMO's plant was in the Spandau district of Berlin. After the Berlin Air Lift and the building of the wall, the BRD realized that they had to take extraordinary measures to keep business and industry in West Berlin, and, among other things, gave companies huge subsidies to move there and tax breaks to stay there. This is why BMW moved motorcycle production to Spandau in 1969. Another part of this program involved moving various agencies of the BRD government to Berlin.

[niall4473]

"Really? I would like to know more about this.

BMW bought out a company called BRAMO just before WWII as a part of their research on building jet engines. BRAMO's plant was in the Spandau district of Berlin. After the Berlin Air Lift and the building of the wall, the BRD realized that they had to take extraordinary measures to keep business and industry in West Berlin, and, among other things, gave companies huge subsidies to move there and tax breaks to stay there. This is why BMW moved motorcycle production to Spandau in 1969. Another part of this program involved moving various agencies of the BRD government to Berlin."

The BMW subsidiary I was referring to was the Dixi factory which BMW took over in the late 1920s (more knowledgeable folk will, I'm sure correct any mistakes I make here), and which was the birthplace of BMW car manufacture, and from the mid 30s motorcycle manufacture too, (all the R35s R75s and, I believe some R51s, R71s and R12s were made there) when the war ended Eisenach was just inside the Soviet Zone of Occupation and from Summer 1945 R35s were built for mostly institutional use throughout all four Zones of Germany, and later for Civilian purchase, these were all correctly badged as BMWs, there were no BMW motorcycles made in Munich at this time as the entire factory had been utilised for production of BMWs air-cooled radial and later, liquid cooled in-line aircraft motors, which powered such aircraft as the Fw190/Ta152 family and the Ju88/188/488 family. (the jet engines built in Spandau only ever made it into a few He162 and Ar234 aircraft operationally), all the motorcycle jigs and fixtures had been transferred to Eisenach (or according to some versions of history in the case of the R71, Russia), and in fact the R51/2 had to be reverse-engineered from prewar R51s bought back from POs (some in the UK, apparently).After the formation of the Federal Republic and DDR in 1949, BMW AG took legal action against the Eisenach factory to prevent the R35s and Cars being badged as BMWs and they became EMWs, which continued until the mid 1950s when motorcycle production ended and the cars eventually became Wartburgs. A similar schism occurred between DKW and MZ, I believe.
Following re-unification, I believe BMW were offered the factory back to rescue it but declined to take it on and it quickly closed

[Darryl.Richman]

Niall, you are correct about Eisenach. Dixi built Austin 7s (a pretty basic car for the era) under license there until BMW bought them out in 1928, and BMW continued making the Dixi for a couple years before moving on to higher end autos. The stamping equipment that BMW got as a part of the Dixi company allowed them to make the pressed steel frame halves for models like the R11 and R12, which were then riveted together. Eisenach is in Thuringia, a state that ended up in the Soviet Zone of occupation after the war. The first post war R35s were made from existing stocks of parts in the factory, and other than a different serial number, are indistinguishable from prewar R35s. This is why the numbers are often forged to make a post war bike into a prewar bike. I believe a part of the Eisenach factory is now a museum about the motorcycles and cars that were produced there.

But what I was actually asking about was that West Berlin was never considered a part of the BRD. The Bonn government worked very hard to get companies to create jobs there so that there was a reason for people to live there.