BP

Maps from Germany

This page looks at road maps issued by BP in Germany.

Up to 1939

Despite its name, the original company carried the name BP in Britain was controlled by the German-owned Europäische Petroleum Union, which was the sole vendor of Shell motor spirit in the UK. Expropriated as foreign property during the First World War it was sold in 1917 to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, in which the UK Government had bought a major stake. This did not deter Anglo-Persian/BP from entering the German market itself in the early 1920s and towards the end of the decade it progressively took control of the former Oil Exporting organisation from Romania, which sold motor spirit in Germany under the name "OLEX".

1950s maps

BP maps from the 1950s are undated and, at a first glance, appear rather similar. However, they can be sequenced and given approximate dates from road construction. Running from left to right above, the earliest map above is probably from around 1952, when the major oil companies restarted mapping programmes. It can be distinguished by a large BP shield and light green colour to Germany on the cover. The next design, probably in use around 1954-5 has two versions, distinguished by the advertising slogan on the rear cover, which refers to Visco-static as well as Energol motor oils. Both cover designs are used with JRO maps at 1:750,000, covering West Germany on four sheets. The reverse of the map has a route planning map of the country, with an autobahn strip map down each edge.
By 1957 (and with an increasing road building programme, dates are easier to estimate) BP and JRO had chosen to move to a larger 1:500,000 scale, placing the main map on both sides of the paper. To compensate for this, West Germany now needed five sections, and an unnumbered route planning map was available separately. A cover price, of DM 0,20, was now shown.
The 1958 map was essentially the same, but the cover had to be redrawn to accommodate the revised BP logo. At the same time the gold of the earlier maps was replaced by the new BP yellow. Initially the white background to the BP shield was taller than it was wide, but it soon become square, and a DM0,20 cover price was reintroduced.
All four maps marked towns with BP stations by underlining them and devoted the rear cover to a mileage chart.

In 1953 BP also sold an Autoführer (car guide) of the new Bundesrepublik (West Germany). This volume consisted of 368 pages, with the first two-thirds devoted to itineraries marked by a red strip map down the edge of each page. The rest of the volume decribed the larger towns, with each including a small street map marking BP locations. Each cover had a pocket, inside which was either a simple map of the main road network, or a map showing the location of the detailed itineraries. The cover shows an idyllic thatched Gasthof, with a couple being served food (two chickens!) and wine; a small BP sign is hanging from the eaves just above their car. JRO compiled the volume; the text was written by Eugen Roth, presumably a relative of JRO's founder, Johannes Roth.

1960s maps

In the early 1960s BP moved to a smaller format of map, keeping the number of sections at 5, but numbering the national planning map as 6. This was also by JRO but at 1:1,250,000 and carried an inset of Berlin. The first two maps above date from around 1963 and 1964 respectively. All carried a mileage chart on the rear cover, but this was augmented by six different drawings mainly of people in sports cars in the latter year. The 1964 series, which like the other 1960s maps can sometimes be found in a clear plastic wallet embossed with the BP logo, also included a locator map showing where BP stations could be found on or close to autobahns.
Around the same time, BP started issuing city maps. It is not known how many cities were covered, but it may be at least a dozen and is known to have included at least Munich (München) and Hamburg, created for BP by H. König.
The main maps also switched to H. König by around 1965-8 (year codes P, Q & S), when the final series above was published. Despite increasing the scale to 1:400,000, the maps were again confined to one side of the paper, through increasing the number of regional sections to six. This permitted town plans to be included on the reverse for the first time, as well as an autobahn overview map again highlighting exits with convenient BP stations. BP locations were marked on the city plans but not, for the first time, on the main maps. The 65/66 maps were priced at DM0,75; the 1968s at DM0,90.

1970s/80s maps

BP was still selling sectional maps from H. König with annual updates as late as 1978, as can be seen in this sequence of maps from 1976/7, 1977/8 and 1978/9. The "Neu" splash in 1978 advertised a new feature showing where there were plans to increase road capacity during the year.

In the mid 1980s, a new unnumbered series in card covers was put on sale. JRO had again taken over the cartography, but the scale of 1:300,000 reflected the trend to larger scale maps amongst most of the major oil companies. The map shown right is an anonymously produced cross-border issue from around 1983, issued by Deutsche (German) BP but covering Belgium and Luxembourg. Unusually it shows the actual BP sign of the era, with a red band incorporating a white chevron below the BP shield.

Although BP appears to have stopped issuing sectional maps earlier than some of its competitors, BP's Card Service gave away a pair of maps in a small card folder to its customers in 1996. One map marked towns with BP stations across the whole of Germany, and was at the scale of 1:1 million. The other map was just of the former East Germany (Neue Bundesländer) and showed towns with any service station that accepted the BP card at a scale of 1:800,000. Both maps were printed on glossy paper by Kartographisches Institut Nabert of Frankfurt a.M.

No BP maps are known from Germany carrying the sunflower logo that replaced the shield in 2000. Maps with the latter symbol are unlikely to exist as in 2002 BP acquired Aral, Germany's largest petrol retailer and took a decision to phase out the BP name in favour of the better known Aral image. However, around three service stations were left under the BP sign, to preserve its trademark rights, and these are marked on some current Aral maps with the sunflower logo.

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Text and layout © Ian Byrne, 2005-8