100th Anniversary in Poland – bikes exhibition - photos part 1

[Lukasz]

Here is Lukasz Wyra from Poland

Dear Club Members, dear BMW Enthusiasts.

Finally after very rough and busy time I have some while to share with you the BMW event prepared by me, my friend Blazej and other colleagues keen on BMW from south of Poland.
We managed to organize exhibition concern 100th Anniversary of BMW motorcycles. It has been placed in the stables of heritage Pszczyna Castle in Silesia - Strona Główna - EN - Muzeum Zamkowe w Pszczynie (zamek-pszczyna.pl). Exhibition has started mid September and it will last till the end of November 2023.

There are numbers of BMW motorcycles: BMW R32, BMW R42, BMW R62, BMW R16, BMW R5, BMW R12, BMW R71, BMW R35, BMW R75, BMW R51/2, BMW R69S, BMW R75/5, BMW R90S, BMW R45, BMW K1, BMW GS1200, BMW R18 plus some machines made by competitors like Victoria KR3, Sokol, Zundapp KS750, Honda od linked with BMW history: M72 or EMW.
In addition my friend Blazej who is working in the Pszczyna castle, manage to lease from Polish National Aviation Museum the first BMW plane engine model IIIA from 1917. So we have comprehensive exposition covering even more than 100y

Most of the pre-1945 bikes belongs to me, with exception of R32, R5 and R35. War time we are presenting in the wider context: R12 versus Polish made Solol 600RT (both met in September 1939 on front) and R75 to compare with the largest competitor Zundapp KS750. There is also R71 model and CCCP clone M72 made in 1940/41 under the reverse-engineering process in Moscow.

Since opening till today castle had over 20.000 visitors on exhibition nonetheless my work has been on volunteers basis and free of any charges
I think that it is the one and the only event that type celebrating 100y anniversary of BMW in Poland. And what is important (but sad), we did not received any kind of support from BMW Poland or any local BMW Dealer. In the other words dealers and other people professionally link with BMW here do not understand the strong link of these days and history.

Please feel invited if you have any possibility to visit Pszczyna. If you can not I will provide you some photos presenting motorcycles and other artefacts from the exhibition.
If you have any question or comments please contact me via forum or directly on my email wyra72@yahoo.pl

Best regards
Lukasz Wyra

PS
I splitted photos into differen posts

[cwf]

"There is also R71 model and CCCP clone M72 made in 1940/41 under the reverse-engineering process in Moscow. "

Hello Lukasz, do you know for certain that it was a reverse-engineering project and not a supply under the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact?

Excellent photos, could you make a film of the exhibits?

Best wishes, Charlie.

[Lukasz]

Hi,
I based on information from book: Andrey Myatiyev The complete history of Soviet Motorcycles part I: 1924-1945
There is: "Despite 1938 developments in Taganrog, the mass production of badly needed army machine didn't appear plausible. The discussion resulted in the decision to copy BMW R71 successfully used by the German Army. (...)
(...)The Foreign Trade Ministry managed, under the Soviet-German military collaboration program, to purchase five BMW R71 with sidecars and design and process documentation. (...)"

So if it was R-M pact author is not defining. However very wide cooperation between 3rd Reich and CCCP under many aspects till 22/06/1941 was a fact.
I will attached photos from the book later.
Kind regards
Lukasz

[cwf]

What I have understood, after a couple of years of reading is that the R-M pact was secret and some categories of exchange (Soviet oil and food for German technology) were vague.
Hitler decreed a simplification of manufacture, which meant that the R 71 and it's machine tools became redundant in favour of the R 75 and could easily be sent to the USSR, but no proof.

I came across a Russian document, which someone in the group is translating. I hope this is it : download/file.php?id=34508
Do you recognise it?

[Lukasz]

Yes, it can be explanation. R71 rather was not stolen from BMW and copied by Russians. My source is mentionig that soviets bought motorcycles with technical documentation.
You attached interesting photo, do you know where can I find the whole document?
I am attaching cover page of book I got information and ISBN number and some text.

[cwf]

Thanks Lukasz, I don't think I can attach the files here, they are too big. If you PM (private message) me with your email address, I'll send them to you. There's one in Russian and one in English.
Charlie.