Franz Josef Popp

Franz Josef Popp was one of three men responsible for the founding of BMW AG and the First General Director of BMW AG from 1922 to 1942.

Popp was born in Vienna in 1886 and in 1901 his family moved to Brno where he completed his university entrance qualification at the local grammar school. He went on to study mechanical and electrical engineering at the local Technical College and qualified with a degree in engineering in 1909. When he returned to Vienna, Franz Josef Popp joined the Viennese company AEGUnion as an electrical engineer. He soon became head of the department for Electric Trains and Locomotives, and one of his responsibilities was to develop electric locomotives for the Mittenwald railway. At the start of the First World War, Popp joined the Kaiserliche und Konigliche Luftfahrtruppen or K.u.K. Luftfahrtruppen as a marine engineer at the Pula base on the Adriatic Sea . This is where he had spent his military service as a oneyear volunteer during his course of studies. However, three weeks later he was ordered back to Vienna to oversee construction for aircraft engine production, initially at AEG and then a

Source: Wikipedia