Day 13: Early Father's Day Post, Car marriages, and those German engineers

First off, I am going to be on a train for most of the day on Father's Day, and my hostel, to my knowledge, does not have Wi-Fi, so I will have to figure out another solution. That is why I m doing my Father's Day post today. Another reason is because I went to the BMW Welt, and I can't wait to reveal the Father's Day present. Let's start from the beginning.

I started off my morning doing the Third Reich tour. I had the same guy as the disappointing Dachau tour, only this time, he had a lot more material. I actually found it informative and useful, so I give him full marks. He began by discussing Munich's attitude towards the Third Reich. Munich was where it all started, but also the last political stronghold against the Nazis. Due to their loss in political power, they considered themselves the first victims of he Nazi regime.

What's impressive is that he had pictures of Hitler from his infancy to his time in the army, to his rise to power, helping us understand how he grew up. Hitler was an unsuccessful artist on Vienna at a time of anti-Semitism, infusing his childhood with anti-Semetic sentiments. He eventually moved to Munich to start fresh, but failed in art, so he joined the army in WWI as a messenger. There, he made his first friends. After the war, Hitler worked for the Bavarian government in an effort to curb communism by promoting democracy, and as a spy to investigate Communist groups.

When he was called to investigate the predecessor to the Nazi party, he found that he was aligned with their ideals and quit his job with the Bavarian government to join the party as a propaganda specialist. He eventually rose to power in the Nazi party and tried to march on the government as Mussolini did on Rome, but failed and was arrested by the Bavarian police. After he got out, he grew the Nazi party in Berlin and we know the rest of the story.

The guide also took us to the site of the Munich conference where Hitler met with world leaders to try to avert war when Hitler began militarizing Germany and took back some territory from Czechoslovakia. The building was Nazi architecture, consistent with the large, impressive and imposing feeling that is left on visitors. One of the early stops was the Hofbrauhaus, where Hitler's first big speech happened.

When my tour ended, I headed straight for the Welt. My dad probably would have killed to have been there. I started at the museum where I got tons of pictures. They had exhibits detailing the development of their work with motorcycles, professional racing and aircraft engines during wartime. Also included were exhibits on the 2 most important series for the company, the 3-series and the M series. I was especially surprised to learn that they pulled out of professional racing, redirecting the cash flow to research and sustainability. I was most impressed by their admittance to their share of the atrocities during WWII, when they employed concentration camp prisoners and forced labourers to produce tanks for the German army. They referred to it as the darkest time in the history of the company. I didn't expect them to do this, as I initially found out about this fact from one of the tours I took. Another cool fact is that the first M1 was made with Lamborghini. I'll stop talking about this now and the photos do the rest.

The temporary exhibition went into detail on the design of coupes and cabriolets, as well as the design process itself. The building was equally impressive. The temporary exhibition was held in the giant bowl, while company headquarters were housed in the famous 4-cylinder building, which was completed just in time to show off for the Olympics. In total, I took about 2 hours at the museum before I headed over to the Welt. The Welt was equally impressive, with a double-cone structure, which, unfortunately, was closed for a corporate event. You may have noticed a picture of a rough architectural sketch of the building. Considering the sketch, it turned out quite well. After a quick walk around, I went to buy the Father's Day gift. The stuff with the logo on it was pricey and didn't exactly help show the place I visited. I ended up getting a hat that says "BMW Welt" on it, and compensating by attaching a small long with the logo on it on the left. See picture! It's funny, because I got the exact same pin for free. Unfortunately, I could only do the activity once, but basically, they offered to send you a brochure of a car that you liked, and give you a free pin. Can't lose on that.

There were no pictures allowed on the plant tour, so I took some notes. The Welt sits on the site of the first BMW plant, which is now across the street. The new plant is producing on 5 levels, as they couldn't expand outwards due to surrounding homes. Instead, they expanded upwards. The plant in Munich produces the 3-series as well as parts for other models. What's impressive is that their changeover time for the moulding process is only 3-5 minutes for one of their lines. For some of the others, it is 10-15 minutes. This depends on the type of car being created.

Steps for the process were deep drawing, trimming & punching, edgebending, and final stamping. The next step was welding and assembly of the underbody and outer body. The 3-series had over 6,000 welding spots.

The company also had an impressive piece of technology called Mobicell. It was essentially a portable production facility, allowing the company to pack it up and go, should it need to respond to market changes. BMW made 900 cars in a day, and the facility included several buffers just in case machines failed. Should a robot fail, it only took 45 minutes to replace!

The paint shop also had a string of processes to created a consistently good looking shell. First, the shell was de-greased and a zinc layer was added. Primer was applied, then infrared drying took place. Then, a filler layer was added to fill the microscopic holes. Finally, the shell would be painted and a clearcoat would be applied.

BMW used JIT production, as well as a system called JIS, just in sequence. Essentially, this means that the parts would be ordered in sequence so that they are ready for immediate production without rearrangement. They have some pretty funny terms for the assembly too, referring to the adjoining of the gear box and the drivetrain as the "engagement", the adjoining of the body and the drivetrain as the "wedding", and the final screws and bolts as the "yes, I do". Engineer humour.

I was too tired to get dinner or explore further, so after a short walk in Olympiapark, I went back to the train station and got 2 sandwiches  and an Augustiner. Apparently, the party celebrating the founding of the city begins tomorrow, so I have one more thing to check out after my visit to the Residenz.

Happy early Father's Day!