The BMW Group (legally, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, commonly abbreviated
ⓘ
to BMW (German pronunciation: [ˌbeːʔɛmˈveː] ), sometimes anglicized as Bavarian
Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles and
motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. The company was
founded in 1916 as a manufacturer of aircraft engines, which it produced from 1917
to 1918 and again from 1933 to 1945 creating engines for aircraft that were used in
the Second World War.
The companies automobiles are marketed under the BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce
brands, and motorcycles are marketed under the BMW Motorrad brand. Also in
2023, BMW was the world's ninth-largest producer of motor vehicles, with 2,555,341
[3] [4]
vehicles produced and in 2023 the 6th largest by revenue. In 2023, the company
[5]
was ranked 46th in the Forbes Global 2000. The company has significant motor-
sport history, especially in touring cars, sports cars, and the Isle of Man TT.
BMW is headquartered in Munich and produces motor vehicles in Germany, the
[6]
United Kingdom, the Netherlands (ceased in 2023), the United States, Brazil,
Mexico, South Africa, India and China. The Quandt family [de] is a long-term
shareholder of the company, following investments by the brothers Herbert and
Harald Quandt in 1959 that saved BMW from bankruptcy, with the remaining shares
owned by the public.
History[edit]
Main article: History of BMW
The Otto Flugmaschinenfabrik was founded in 1910 by Gustav Otto in the Kingdom
of Bavaria, which was a state of the German Empire. The firm was reorganized on 7
March 1916 into Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG. This company was then renamed to
Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) in 1922. However, the name BMW dates back to
1913, when a company to use the name was founded by Karl Rapp initially as Rapp
Motorenwerke. The name and Rapp Motorenwerke's engine-production assets were
transferred to Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in 1922, who adopted the name the same
[7]
year. BMW's first product was produced for fighter aircraft of the Luftstreitkräfte. It
was a straight-six aircraft engine called the BMW IIIa, designed in the spring of 1917
by engineer Max Friz. Following the end of World War I, BMW remained in business
by producing motorcycle engines, agricultural equipment, household items, and
railway brakes. The company produced its first motorcycle, the BMW R 32, in 1923.
BMW became an automobile manufacturer in 1928 when it purchased
Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach, which, at the time, built the Austin 7 under licence from
[8]
Dixi. The first car sold as a BMW was a rebadged BMW Dixi called the BMW 3/15,
following BMW's acquisition of the car manufacturer Automobilwerk Eisenach.
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, BMW concentrated on the BMW 801 aircraft engine
[9]
using as many as 40,000 slave laborers. These consisted primarily of prisoners
from Nazi concentration camps, most prominently Dachau. Motorcycles remained as
a side-line and automobile manufacture ceased altogether.
BMW's factories were heavily bombed during the war 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 under licence. Slow sales of
luxury cars and small profit margins from microcars, meant BMW was in serious
financial trouble and in 1959 the company was nearly taken over by rival Daimler-
[citation needed]
Benz.
A large investment in BMW by Herbert Quandt and Harald Quandt resulted in the
company surviving as a separate entity. Günther Quandt, was a well-known German
industrialist, joined the Nazi party in 1933 and made a fortune arming the German
[10]
Wehrmacht, manufacturing weapons and batteries. Many of his enterprises were
appropriated from Jewish owners under duress with minimal compensation. At least
three of his enterprises made extensive use of slave laborers, as many as 50,000 in
[11]
all. One of his battery factories had its own on-site concentration camp, complete
[11][12]
with gallows. Life expectancy for laborers was six months. While Quandt and
BMW were not directly connected during the war, funds amassed in the Nazi era by
[9]
his father allowed Herbert Quandt to buy BMW.
