---
title: Albrecht Graf von Goertz · HICONIUM
description: Albrecht Graf von Goertz in the HICONIUM register — one file carrying their credit.
canonical_url: https://hiconium.dev/people/albrecht-graf-von-goertz
image: https://hiconium.dev/og/people/albrecht-graf-von-goertz.png
---

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> On this page: [Ultra-wide horizontal kidneys](#ultra-wide-horizontal-kidneys) · [Bonnet line first](#bonnet-line-first) · [Outside New York studio](#outside-new-york-studio) · [One file carries this name](#one-file-carries-this-name)

People

# Albrecht Graf von Goertz

Independent industrial designer of the BMW 507

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Born | Brunkensen, Lower Saxony, Germany, 1914 |
| Died | Kitzbühel, Austria, 2006 |
| Nationality | German |

The record

German industrial designer who, from Goertz Industrial Design in New York, drew the BMW 507 after Max Hoffman rejected BMW's first roadster prototype.

Albrecht Graf von Goertz was born on 12 January 1914, the second son of an aristocratic family, and grew up on the family estate near Brunkensen in Lower Saxony. He began a Deutsche Bank apprenticeship in Hamburg in 1933 and, after a year and a half, moved to the London private bank Helbert Wagg & Co. In 1935 he applied for a United States visa at Grosvenor Square and left Europe for New York in the autumn of 1936.

He settled in Los Angeles, working at a car wash and an aircraft-engine factory before renting a Rodeo Drive garage in 1938 to modify Fords. On a Mercury chassis he built the Paragon, a two-door coupé shown at the 1939 San Francisco World Exhibition. In 1940 he joined the United States Army and served five years in the Pacific. After his discharge Raymond Loewy sent him to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, then hired him as a junior designer at Studebaker in Indiana.

He and Loewy parted after two and a half years. In 1953 he opened Goertz Industrial Design, Inc. in New York. Max Hoffman, BMW's American importer, rejected the first V8 roadster drafts and told Goertz to send sports-car sketches to Munich. The drawings were accepted at once; two weeks later he was invited to BMW, and the contracts were signed in January 1955.

Twenty weeks separated the first sketches of late October 1954 from approval of the body in March 1955. The 507 sat on a BMW 502 chassis shortened by 35.5 centimetres and wore aluminium coachwork with the first ultra-wide horizontal BMW kidneys. The 507 and the related 503 coupé and cabriolet appeared together at the 1955 Frankfurt motor show. He later said that BMW's mechanics dropped the engine five centimetres so he could lower the bonnet line.

### Ultra-wide horizontal kidneys

On the 507 he replaced BMW's tall vertical kidneys with a wide, low pair. BMW Group Classic records this as the first ultra-wide treatment of the grille.

### Bonnet line first

He later recalled that when he asked the workshop for more space so the bonnet could be lowered, the engine was moved five centimetres down.

### Outside New York studio

From 1953 he worked as an independent industrial-design office in New York. The 507 and 503 were outside commissions, not the work of a BMW staff stylist.

The stations

1. 1933–1934 Deutsche Bank, Hamburg Apprentice
2. 1940–1945 United States Army Serviceman, Pacific theatre
3. 1953– Goertz Industrial Design, Inc. Founder and principal

The house

[![BMW](https://hiconium.dev/images/marques/bmw.svg)](https://hiconium.dev/manufacturers/bmw)

Credited through Goertz Industrial Design.

In the register

## One file carries this name

- [BMW 507 Exterior designer · Goertz Industrial Design 1956–1959 €1.9M 1956–1959 €1.9M Rating 93.0](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/bmw/507)

The files above are the register's own record of this name. [The people index](https://hiconium.dev/people) holds everyone the register credits.

Sources

- [press.bmwgroup.com](https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/usa/article/detail/T0022245EN_US/albrecht-graf-goertz-to-celebrate-his-90th-birthday?language=en_US)
- [press.bmwgroup.com](https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/canada/article/detail/T0028576EN/designer-albrecht-graf-goertz-passes-away?language=en)
- [press.bmwgroup.com](https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/deutschland/article/detail/T0002987DE/designer-albrecht-graf-goertz-verstorben?language=de)
- [press.bmwgroup.com](https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/austria/article/detail/T0035309DE/albrecht-graf-goertz-wird-90?language=de)
- [presstopic.bmwgroup.com](https://www.presstopic.bmwgroup.com/en/bmw-classic-blog/text/60-YEARS-OF-PURE-TEMPTATION-4484.html)
- [bmwgroup-classic.com](https://www.bmwgroup-classic.com/en/models/bmw-classics/product-description-page.ad-1173-1.bmw-507-model-series.html)
- [autogazette.de](https://autogazette.de/oldtimer/schoepfer-des-bmw-507-ist-tot-43555.html)
- [press.bmwgroup.com](https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0262726EN/elvis%E2%80%99-bmw-507-lives-on:-comeback-at-the-concours-d%E2%80%99elegance-in-pebble-beach?language=en)