YEAR 1920

The tough business climate at the end of WW1 made Castiglioni to sell his holdings for 28 million Reichsmarks to the chief executive of Knorr Bremsen AG. With only a few aircraft engines on order, BMW was struggling and started to manufacture brake systems for railway cars, office furniture, and workbenches, as well as cut-down aviation engines for marine and industrial use.

                                                                                                                                         Camillo Castiglioni

                                     The current BMW logo, introduced in the early 1920, was believed to be based on the circular design of an aircraft propeller.

                                In these conditions, the company had to think to other products and so BMW starts building motorcycle engines. In 1920, Martin Stolle and Max Friz design the M2 B 15 engine for the "Victoria" motorcycle from Nürnberg. This was the first BMW motorcycle engine and it was produced between 1920 and 1922.


 Martin Stolle - short presentation

Born March 3, 1886 in Berlin, - 25 September 1982 was a German auto mobile and motorcycle designer.

                                                                                                                                        Victoria BMW engine

    Martin Stolle worked initially for Cudell in Aachen, from 1917 at the Rapp Engine Works, from which emerged later BMW AG.

   BMW delivered boxer engine M 2 B 15 to different companies, including also Victoria for K.R.I. Stolle was involved in the construction of these engines. 

Martin Stolle created a top-driven two-cylinder boxer engine located at a higher power for the next generations of Victoria.

   Stolle founded previously an automobile factory in Munich, which changed its name finally to Vorster & Stolle Motors Ltd. and built in 1925, the Stolle-sports car.

                                                                                                                                          Stolle sport car

Later, Martin Stolle went to the German industrial plants from Berlin Spandau.There were, besides a few cars, motorcycles, sold under the brand name D-Rad. 

                                 

The Stolle role, was the driving behavior of the suspension fork equipped with leaf, "like a goat jumping" to improve motorcycle (Spandau springbok), and the company's reputation. 
  

                                                                                                                                   M2 B 15 engine