The specifications were clearly defined: the office building had to be variable in its layout so it could be adapted to prevailing conditions at any time. The plot was undeveloped at this time and used as a car park for BMW employees.ġ968 the management launched a competition for the new building and invited eight architects to submit their visions. Wilhelm Hermann Gieschen, Board Member for Production from 1961 to 1971, first presented plans to a board meeting on 14 June 1966 for a new administration building to the south of the BMW plant on Dostlerstrasse – directly at the main entrance to the main plant. The constantly swelling production figures not only meant that the production facilities had to be expanded more space was also needed for administration. The company was on a rapid expansion course in the 1960s. The creation of the BMW Headquarters came at an auspicious moment for the BMW Group. Rapid growth: more space needed for administration. In spring 2013, a commission of experts included this visionary building complex in the ranks of the fifteen most spectacular corporate headquarters and hailed it as “the coolest and most impressive corporate headquarters in the world”. A symbol of openness, international exchange, peace and interculturality. The innovative strength of its design represented the BMW company then as it does today and makes the Munich Headquarters building a beacon of tomorrow’s mobility. “This building inspires us,” says Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG. In fact, the Headquarters also represents the company’s pioneering spirit and assertion of leadership. “Built to shape tomorrow”, as Karl Schwanzer put it. An architectural landmark with global appeal for Munich and the BMW Group alike. The Viennese architect combined an impressive façade design with an innovative, flexible spatial concept. The BMW Headquarters is an icon for the BMW Group that not only represents the crowning glory of Karl Schwanzer’s architectural life’s work, but also set standards in modern office architecture in the early 1970s. “A building with short distances (indoors) and clear lines (outdoors), a coolly calculated experiment and a milestone of architecture,” as an in-house bulletin in 1973 described it.

When Viennese professor Karl Schwanzer completed this building in 1972 in time for the Olympic Games, he actually created the foundations for an architectural philosophy at BMW that is still applied today. The BMW Headquarters building is a milestone in the company’s history and celebrates its 50th anniversary this year on 22 July. It is extremely significant for the BMW Group. It is a city landmark, recognisable from far away and inextricably associated with the Bavarian capital. The BMW Headquarters is as much a part of Munich as St. The pioneering architectural icon continues to embody the innovative power of the BMW Group to this day. Half a century ago, the BMW headquarters building was completed on Munich’s Petuelring road.

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