The BMW and EMW story stretches back before the turn of the 20th Century. The precursor company Automobilwerk Eisenach was founded in 1896, and was eventually acquired by BMW in 1928 when they wanted to expand into automobile production (until then, they produced engines and motorcycles but no cars). Until the 1950’s, BMW automobiles were produced not in Munich, but at the factory in Eisenach, which is located in what was then Eastern Germany. Because of the factory’s location, it fell under Soviet control, and production of prewar BMW cars resumed after the war with no corporate connection to BMW in Munich. When the Soviets transferred the ownership of the company to the government of East Germany in 1952, BMW initiated legal proceedings, resulting in the renaming of the Eisenach company to EMW (Eisenach Motor Works), and the introduction of the red and white roundel to replace the blue and white one ordinarily associated with BMW. EMW continued to produce prewar BMW models including a limited number of 327’s (approximately 400 examples), before transferring to produce more sensible and less glamorous cars more suited to the Communist state. Thus, for EMW, the 327 was among the last vestiges of the pre-war glory associated with the streamlined and mechanically sophisticated cars that BMW produced.