Bayerische Motoren Werke was founded in october 1913 by Karl Friedrich Rapp as a factory for plane engines named Rapp Motorenwerke. As location they chose the Milbertshofendistrict in München mearby the Gustav Otto Flugmaschinenfabrik, a German plane factory of Gustav Otto and precedor of Bayerische Flugzeug Werke.
First World War
In 1916 the company signed a contract to build V12 engines for Austria-Hungary. Rapp tried to get extra funds and found them with Camillo Castiglioni and Max Friz. However they expanded to quick and it caused some problems after which Rapp left the company and the company was officialy renamed Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH. Franz Josef Popp took the lead and in 1918 the name became BMW AG.
After the WWI the factory was closed temporary and when they reopend BMW had to cease the development of airplane engines and they started to build brakes for railways. After selling the company to Knorr-Bremse former stock holder Camillo Castiglioni buys in 1922 the brand of BMW and sells it to the Bayerische Flugzeug Werke. Bayerische Motoren Werke decided the founding date of their precedor Bayerische Flugzeug Werke as the official founding date.
Second World War
During the second world war BMW was a big supplier of engines to the Luftwaffe and of motorbikes and other motorised vehicles to the Wehrmacht. One of the bikes was the 801, one of the most powerful bikes of its time, A sidecar was also called Wehrmachtsgespann. Untill 1945 over 30.000 were made.
The Bayerische Motoren Werke factory were heavily bombed during the war. The factory in München was almost totally destroyed and the factories in eastern Germany (Eisenach, Dürrerhof, Basdorf and Zühlsdorf) were overtaken by the Soviets. The Soviets transfered the equipment to their own factories and started to replicate their designs. The model “Wehrmacht” is still being produced up to date with only limited changes and it nowadays goes by the name Oeral.
After the second World War
After the war BMW recovered. They mainly focused on building motorcycles and they also built big sportscars and limousines with a V8 that rarely sold. The factory almost went bankrupt. The big savior came with a tricycle like ‘scootmobile’ called the BMW Isetta. The big breakthrough however was the BMW 1500 in 1961. Ever since BMW started to build a range from sedans to coupes which had the option of being equiped with several engines which was uncommon in the sixties.
The brand created a new genre with the 323i from 1977, a rather cheap 2-seater with rwd and a 6-in-line engine under the hood. The trademark most people know of BMW is the rwd however they already have a lot of 4wd cars and rumors are a small fwd car will come in the next couple of months.
In 1994 they took over the British brand Rover
In 1998 they lost the battle for Rolls-Royce from Volkswagen but they took trademarks on Rolls-Royce away from Volkswagen which were linked to Royce Aerospace. Rover appeared to be a mistake and was sold in march 2000 in which BMW only kept rights to the Mini.
In 2002 they produced a new version of the Mini which became a big success.