On July 9th, 1929, BMW held a launch ceremony at its first car showrooms in Berlin, unveiling a model it called the 3/15 PS. The company's history goes back a little further, however. In 1898, a firm called Wartburg, based in Eisenach, Thuringia, started manufacturing French Decauville cars under licence. In 1903, Wartburg became a subsidiary of the Dusseldorf Group, and the cars became known under a new brand name, Dixi; the firm went on to produce lorries and engines for aeroplanes and boats. In 1923, it was taken over again by the Gotha Wagon company, which in turn went bankrupt in 1926; private investors moved in and Dixi was re-launched in 1928 to manufacture a version of the Austin 7 under licence.
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| Getting the ball rolling: the first production 3/15 PS |
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Meanwhile, aviation engineers Karl Rapp and Gustav Otto had set up an engine and aircraft factory at Munich's first airfield, Oberwiesenfeld. Their firm, initially the Otto Werke, became known as the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW) in March 1916, but changed its name to the Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Works) the following year, when it also adopted the trademark blue and white propeller symbol as its emblem and its first engine completed test runs. After the First World War, however, the Treaty of Versailles banned aircraft engine manufacture in Germany, and the aeronautical industry was still tiny anyway: BMW diversified into making motorcycle engines, and then its own complete two-wheeler, the flat-twin R32, launched in 1923. This proved so successful that BMW's management - including, as an advisory board member, MD of Daimler Benz Carl Schippert - decided to enter into the automobile market. Trial prototypes were built and tested, including advanced front-wheel drives and vehicles of all sizes, but rather than start from scratch, BMW bought the Eisenach factory and rights to the Dixi operations, which it took over on the 1st October 1928 for a price of 10m Reichsmarks.
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| 3/15 PS Wartburg roadster got artificial leather panels |
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The two-door Dixi was almost identical to the Austin Seven, a cheap, economy car with a water-cooled 750cc, 15hp four-cylinder engine. BMW was keen to produce something a little more upmarket, which it could then sell under its own brand: a state-of-the-art, all-steel body was developed by Berlin-based supplier Ambi-Budd, and BMW hired a factory workshop in the city to build the car. This was near the old Berlin-Johannisthal airport, and production of the BMW 3/15 PS started there on 22nd March 1929 (Dixi production continued in Eisenach). In its first year, BMW sold 5,368 cars, helped by a win in the five-day Alpine rally that year and an affordable purchase price of 2000 Reichsmarks, which could be paid in instalments.
The Eisenach plant went on to build a touring version of the 3/15 PS which had a conventional wood-and-steel frame with artificial leather panels, and two-seater roadster, four-seater convertible and van variants had also joined the range by 1930, when a sportier 18hp model, badged as a Wartburg, and a coupe were launched.
