The official founding date of the German motor vehicle manufacturer BMW is 7 March 1916, when an aircraft producer called Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (formerly Otto Flugmaschinenfabrik) was established. This company was renamed to Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) in 1922. However, the BMW name dates back to 1917, when Rapp Motorenwerke changed its name to Bayerische Motoren Werke. BMW's first product was a straight-six aircraft engine called the BMW IIIa. Following the end of World War I, BMW remained in business by producing motorcycle engines, farm equipment, household items and railway brakes.
This was not enough and the company was suspended, effectively bankrupt, from 6 November 1918 to 1 February 1919. BMW turned to motorcycle engine manufacturing, building a smooth operating horizontally opposed engine to keep the centre of mass low and thus make a more responsive machine. The engine was well received but the motorcycles made using it were not and sold slowly. BMW's General Director Franz Josef Popp had to branch out again and BMW became a sub-contract manufacturer for braking system manufacturer Knorr Bremse.
The major shareholder in BMW, Vienna based Italian speculator Camillo Castiglionli, sold all of his shares to Knorr Bremse in May 1920, who then acquired the remaining shares to make BMW a wholly owned subsidiary still run by Popp. Less than two years later Popp persuaded Castiglionli buy back the BMW company name and buy the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke for its production site on the other side of the air field. There the company produced its first motorcycle in 1923. This was the legendary Max Fritz designed BMW R32 shaft drive motorcycle, which featured an integrated gearbox, recirculating rather than total loss lubrication and with the cylinder heads poking out for cooling.
BMW became an automobile manufacturer in 1928 when it purchased Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach, which built Austin Sevens at that time under licence (under the Dixi marque).Odin, L.C. World in Motion 1939 - The whole of the year's automobile production. Belvedere Publishing, 2015. ASIN: B00ZLN91ZG. The first car sold as a BMW was a rebadged Dixi called the BMW 3/15. Throughout the 1930s, BMW expanded its range into sports cars and larger luxury cars.
Aircraft engines, motorcycles, and automobiles would be BMW's main products until World War II. During the war, against the wishes of Popp, BMW concentrated on aircraft engine production, with military motorcycles as a side line, and automobile manufacture stopped altogether in 1941, under government prohibition. BMW's factories were heavily bombed during the war, its automobile factory in the Russian controlled East Germany and its remaining West German facilities were banned from producing motor vehicles or aircraft after the war. Again, the company survived by making pots, pans and bicycles. In 1948, BMW restarted motorcycle production. BMW resumed car production in Bavaria in 1952 with the BMW 501 luxury saloon. The range of cars was expanded in 1955, through the production of the cheaper Isetta microcar after acquiring the rights from Italian company Iso. Slow sales of loss making luxury cars, declining profitable motorcycle sales as the economy improved and small profit margins from microcars meant BMW was in serious financial trouble. A "600" 4 seat version of the Isetta, with the "fridge" front door and one side door and a 600 cc air cooled horizontal twin motorcycle engine, was a sales flop. This led to a "proper car" styled by Micholetti based on the 600 was developed but consumed all available fund leading to very limited production in 1959. In December 1959, the company was nearly taken over by rival Daimler-Benz. Herbert Quandt and Harald Quandt acquired a controlling interest, largely based on the sales prospect of the 700 resulted in the company surviving as a separate entity.
The Quandts’ father, Günther Quandt, was a well-known German industrialist. Quandt joined the Nazi party in 1933 and made a fortune arming the German Wehrmacht, manufacturing weapons and batteries. Many of his enterprises had been appropriated from Jewish owners under duress and with minimal compensation. At least three of his enterprises made extensive use of slave laborers, as many as 50,000 in all. One of his battery factories had its own on-site concentration camp, complete with gallows. While the Quandt family and BMW were not directly connected during the war, funds amassed in the Nazi era by his father allowed Herbert Quandt to buy BMW.
The BMW 700 was successful and assisted in the company's recovery.
The 1962 introduction of the BMW New Class compact sedans was the beginning of BMW's reputation as a leading manufacturer of sport-oriented cars. Throughout the 1960s, BMW expanded its range by adding coupe and luxury sedan models. The BMW 5 Series mid-size sedan range was introduced in 1972, followed by the BMW 3 Series compact sedans in 1975, the BMW 6 Series luxury coupes in 1976 and the BMW 7 Series large luxury sedans in 1978.
The BMW M division released its first road car, a mid-engine supercar, in 1978. This was followed by the BMW M5 in 1984 and the BMW M3 in 1986. Also in 1986, BMW introduced its first V12 engine in the 750i luxury sedan.
The company purchased the Rover Group in 1994, but the takeover was not successful and caused BMW large financial losses. In 2000, BMW sold off most of the Rover brands, retaining only Mini. BMW acquired the rights to the Rolls-Royce brand in 1998.
The 1995 BMW Z3 expanded the line-up to include a mass-production two-seat roadster, and the 1999 BMW X5 was the company's entry into the SUV market.
Their first mass-produced turbocharged petrol engine was introduced in 1980 (m102), with most engines switching over to turbocharging over the following decade. The first hybrid BMW was the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid 7, and BMW's first electric car was the BMW i3 city car, which was released in 2013. After many years of establishing a reputation for sporting rear-wheel drive cars, BMW's first front-wheel drive car was the 2014 BMW 2 Series Active Tourer multi-purpose vehicle (MPV).
Aircraft and industrial engines 1913–1918: World War I
BMW's origins can be traced back to three separate German companies: Rapp Motorenwerke, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke and Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach.
The history of the name itself begins with Rapp Motorenwerke, an aircraft engine manufacturer which was established in 1913 by Karl Rapp. A site near the Oberwiesenfeld was chosen because it was close to Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (then called Otto Flugmaschinenfabrik), with whom he had contracts to supply his four-cylinder aircraft engines.Norbye, Jan P., BMW - Bavaria's Driving Machines p. 11 Rapp was also sub-contracted by Austro-Daimler to manufacture their V12 aircraft engines, under the supervision of Franz Josef Popp, who was delegated to Munich from Vienna. Popp did not restrict himself to the role of observer, becoming actively involved in the overall management of the company.Norbye, p. 12
In April 1917, following founder Karl Rapp's departure, Rapp Motorenwerke was renamed to Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW). BMW's first product was the BMW IIIa aircraft engine. The IIIa engine was known for good fuel economy and high-altitude performance. The resulting orders for IIIa engines from the German military caused rapid expansion for BMW. The large orders received from the Luftstreitkrafte for the BMW IIIa engine were overwhelming for the small company, however government officials in the relevant ministries were able to give BMW extensive practical support for the rapid expansionBayerische Motoren Werke GmbH BMW Historical Archives and funding to build a new factory near BMW's existing workshops. The German Empire did not, however, wish to go on supporting BMW with loans and guarantees, and therefore urged the flotation of a public limited company.Kiley, D. Driven:Inside BMW, the Most Admired Car Company in the World
The name change to Bayerische Motoren Werke compelled management to devise a new logo for the company, and the famous BMW logo was designed at this time. However, they remained true to the imagery of the previous Rapp Motorenwerke emblem. Thus, both the old and the new emblems were built up in the same way – the company name was placed in a black circle, which was once again given a pictorial form by placing a symbol within it. By analogy with this, the blue and white panels of the Bavarian national flag were placed at the center of the BMW logo. Not until the late 1920s was the logo lent a new interpretation as representing a rotating propeller.
BMW's corporate history considers the founding date of Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (7 March 1916) to be the birth of the company.
1918–1923: Post-war aftermath
After the end of World War I in 1918, BMW was forced to cease aircraft engine production by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. At the time, Max Wiedmann held about 80 percent of the shares in BMW, the majority of which were obtained from his father-in-law Julius Auspitzer. Following Wiedmann's capitulation, the company was renamed from BMW GmbH to BMW AG and registered as a company on 13 August 1918, taking over the manufacturing assets, order book and workforce from BMW GmbH.Munich Commercial Register; Munich public records; 13 August 1918 The shares in BMW AG were owned by the Viennese financier Camillo Castiglioni (33%), the Nuremberg industrialist Fritz Neumeyer (33%), Bayerische Bank (17%) and Norddeutsche Bank (17%). To remain in business, BMW produced farm equipment, household items and railway brakes. The BMW M2B15 industrial engine was also used in various motorcycles, including the 1920 Helios model built by Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (which would later merge with BMW).
This was not enough and BMW became a sub-contract manufacturer for braking system manufacturer , now known as Knorr-Bremse
On 20 May 1922, Camillo Castiglioni purchased back the rights to the name BMW for 75 million reichsmarks. Castiglioni was also an investor in another aircraft company, called Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (formerly Otto Flugmaschinenfabrik), which he renamed to Bayerische Motoren Werke AG. The disused factory of Bayerische Flugzeugwerke on Lerchenauer Straße was re-opened to produce engines for buses, trucks, farm equipment and pumps under the BMW brand name. BMW's headquarters have been at that location ever since.Norbye, p. 13BMW Munich Plant - Location - History - 1922
1939–1945: World War II
With German rearmament in the 1930s, the company again began producing aircraft engines for the Luftwaffe. In 1939, BMW bought Brandenburgische Motorenwerke, also known as Bramo, from the Siemens group of companies and merged it with its aircraft engine division under the name BMW Flugmotorenbau GmbH. A new factory at Allach, outside Munich, began production of aircraft engines later that year.Norbye, p. 72 Over 30,000 aero engines were manufactured through 1945, as well as over 500 jet engines such as the BMW 003. To enable this massive production effort, forced labor was utilized, consisting primarily of prisoners from concentration camps such as Dachau and Munich-Allach.The Dachau Concentration Camp, 1933 to 1945, p.171 By the end of the war, almost 50% of the 50,000-person workforce at BMW AG consisted of prisoners from concentration camps.
Among its successful World War II engine designs were the BMW 132 and BMW 801 air-cooled radial engines, and the pioneering BMW 003 axial-flow turbojet. Towards the end of the Third Reich, BMW developed some military aircraft projects for the Luftwaffe— the Strahlbomber, Schnellbomber and Strahljäger— but none of them reached production.
Motorcycles