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 BMW-Daimler
kfz-tech.de/PBM157
| 1937 Daimler-Benz Aircraft Engine |
No, we can't call this chapter "Daimler-Benz," because the history of the two companies and any connections between them began long before the merger of Daimler and Benz. It was not insignificant, that two engineers
moved from Stuttgart to Munich, Karl Rapp perhaps a slightly lesser important than Max Friz, without whom the company would likely never have risen to prominence as 'Stern'.
You really have to let that sink in. When Friz left Daimler, Daimler and its future partner Benz were the leading manufacturers of aircraft engines in Germany; BMW had not yet even been founded under that name. When it
became clear, by 1935 at the latest, that the two companies had grown apart, BMW awarded Daimler contracts worth 5 million RM for aircraft engine parts. Daimler as a supplier to BMW.
Even in the fourth year of World War I, the newly founded Bayerische Motoren Werke received a visit from a military commission that was determined to offer repairs only for either Daimler or Benz engines. The newly
installed managing director, Popp, invited everyone to dinner and, through some rather clever maneuvering, managed to get the commission interested in the new BMW engine and its production.
Perhaps one could describe the year 1917 as the start of a race between the two companies, a race that, incidentally, is still ongoing today. No, we do not intend to repeat the incredible successes of the BMW high-altitude
engine and the rapid establishment of a massive production facility with approximately 3,000 employees; rather, we will move away from aircraft engines and focus on competing in the land vehicle sector.
kfz-tech.de/PBM158
But we can also attribute the first 12-cylinder engines (pictured above) to BMW, as an aircraft engine in 1926 and in a passenger car in 1987, Mercedes following 15 years later. And by securing the license for the air-cooled
radial engine in the USA, BMW kept its lead, this time even ahead of the entire German aviation industry. But the promise was made to get to the cars - sand to give a sense of the love-hate relationship between the two
companies.
The idea of a people's car - or, rather, a compact car - was on the minds of almost all designers. We've already reported on Porsche. During his time at Mercedes, he had also built a small car, one that resembled the
Sascha car more than the later Beetle. Even the famous Bugatti had developed such a prototype, which was completely out of character for him. In the first half of a century marked by so much war and misery,
it was likely intended as an island of hope. Reports indicate that there were well over 100 automobile companies after World War I.
Almost all of them went bankrupt during the economic downturn 10 years later. Long before Porsche began working on the VW Beetle at Hitler's order, Franz-Josef Popp published articles in trade journals in 1924–1925
intended to encourage the manufacture and sale of such a car for $1,000. Hitler later reduced the amount to 1,000 RM, which. at the exchange rate at the time, was considerably more than it is today, namely 4.2 to 1.
And what does Daimler have to do with this? A positive response came from none other than Wilhelm Kissel, a member of the board of directors and later chairman of Daimler, which led to a rapprochement between BMW
and Daimler in 1926. This rapprochement became outwardly visible, first with Popp joining the supervisory board of Daimler-Benz, and then with Kissel at BMW, but not until 1932. In fact, a large-scale stock swap
had been planned, but it ultimately fell through because BMW demanded that Mercedes cease production of aircraft engines.
It was a time that already foreshadowed the collapses, which people sought to counter with mergers.The Deutsche Bank played a major role in both companies, represented by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Dr.
von Strauss. Following the merger of Daimler and Benz, BMW was also expected to join the group. That's not all, because the plan was to form a South German automotive group afterward.
We know today that it never came to anything, but the good relationship between Popp and Kittel remained. After all, they were all members of the Reichsverband der deutschen
Automobilindustrie, which came under considerable pressure from Hitler’s Volkswagen plans, at least until 1936. Some of the cars produced by BMW were sold through Mercedes, no problem, since they cost only
40 percent of the price of the cheapest Daimler.
| Popp's two daughters married Daimler employees. |
A highlight of the relationship was the scene in which Popp had Hans Nibel, Daimler-Benz’s chief engineer, evaluate the three designs, by Friz, Duckstein, and Schleicher, for the new six-cylinder engine for the BMW 303.
In this way, the team in Stuttgart helped BMW develop a modern, scalable engine. Apparently, they underestimated the risks involved.
| Sindelfingen may be very conservative, but it's more reliable and significantly better in terms of quality
than Ambi-Budd. |
Even the body of the 3/20 was manufactured in Sindelfingen, no longer at Ambi-Budd. But when BMW began planning the 319 in 1935, with a nearly monocoque body and a 1.9-liter six-cylinder engine, it
marked the beginning of the split. Sindelfingen stuck with the sheet-metal-clad wooden frame and was unable to fulfill the order. In addition, BMW gradually became a competitor to Mercedes.
This continued until World War II. However, BMW's automobile production, except perhaps in the first year, and despite the advantage of having certain costs covered by the aircraft engines division,
was never truly profitable, at least not until 1959. But after the war, the two men were no longer in charge of their companies.
Wilhelm Kissel died as early as 1942, presumably in part out of grief over the military-enforced licensed production of the Opel Blitz at Daimler. Franz-Josef Popp was stripped of his authority because he did not accord the
production of aircraft engines the exceptionally high priority expected and still clung somewhat to passenger car production. Perhaps with him at the head, the company would have been spared the management chaos
after the war.
You already know about the climax of the dispute between the former allies on December 9, 1959. And you've already heard about further competition. But there is one piece of the puzzle that still needs to be
mentioned, even though it dates back to 1968. The first BMW 2500 was introduced in the upper mid-size class, clearly in direct competition with Mercedes. But every effort was made to verbally
downplay this fact.
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