Photo from above blog posting17 December 1948, BMW's first postwar model rolled from production-line in Munich. The R24 saved BMW.
Sixty years ago, on December 17 1948 the first post-war BMW motorcycle rolled off the Munich production line. The single-cylinder R 24 was the motorcycle that would bring BMW back from the brink of extinction.
At the end of WWII Germany lay in ruins with industry destroyed and the population dislocated and dispirited. BMW plants were badly damaged and there was an Allied plan for the company to be broken up. The future looked bleak. However the American army was in need of a vehicle maintenance base and BMW had a trained workforce, some buildings and equipment, so the company was given the contract. This arrangement would keep the Americans mobile, give much-needed employment to the German people and give BMW time to work on a future.
Read the whole posting in the link above, good stuff for anyone who rides a Beemer.
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