Claim:
BMW's logo included a swastika while the Nazi Party ruled Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.
Rating:
False ( About this rating? )
On June 28, 2024, an X user posted an image of a rusty brass badge with BMW's company name and a swastika on it. The picture stated the badge was from 1936, when the Nazi Party, which adopted the swastika as a symbol, were in power in Germany.
The badge was next to a modern BMW logo with Pride flag colors in it. The image was captioned: "I've opined that pride symbols are the Swastika of our times. BMW have kinda proved it!"
Similar claims appeared elsewhere on X in 2019 , 2021 , 2022 , 2023 and 2024 , and other related posts were found on 9gag in 2021, Reddit in 2022, TikTok in 2023, and YouTube in 2024.
Together, the posts had amassed more than 455,000 interactions at the time of this writing.
However, a BMW spokesperson told Snopes the car manufacturer never had a swastika in its logo, and we found no evidence this was the case, which is why we have rated this claim as "False."
Katrin Gfrörer, head of archives at BMW Group, told Snopes via email: "This emblem keeps popping up on social media. It is not an original BMW emblem, but was created by a third person. BMW never had the swastika in its logo."
BMW historian Annika Biss then told Snopes via email the company has "no information [on] who created or sold" the badge. She also sent us the logo the car manufacturer registered in 1933, pictured below, which would have still been valid in 1936.
Gfrörer noted that BMW had previously publicly acknowledged its role as an armament company in Nazi Germany. The company's statement on "BMW during the Nazi era" did not mention using the swastika in this period.
Snopes also found no proof BMW ever had a swastika in its logo. Multiple BMW webpages dedicated to the company's logo history produced no evidence of the fascist symbol's inclusion .
The evolution of BMW's logo from 1917 to 2020 and onwards. (BMW)
Likewise, third-party websites documenting BMW's logo history — such as motor news website Motor1 , logos website 1000 Logos , logos website Logo Design Love , multi-industry news site DirectIndustry e-magazine , and service and repair website German Automotive — did not show any evidence of a swastika being included in the car manufacturer's logo.
Snopes found examples of swastika-emblazoned brass badges on two auction websites , therefore they appeared to be actual items; however, neither descriptions stated the badges were official BMW products.
We found no proof elsewhere that the fascist symbol was included in the car manufacturer's logo during the Nazi Party's rule in Germany.
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