BMW, we all heard about it. It is very easy for people who are into cars to distinguish a BMW from its competitor’s products. The company is known for its innovations, ingenuity, success and fame and its long history of failures and success. BMW is a symbol of status in many countries. A Driver of BMW must have been a successful small business owner, entrepreneur behind the success of well known companies, either local or national, or a very important senior executive of reputed firms. So, aspect of status has become a main reason for BMW’s customer loyalty.
In this post, let us explore the history of this famous and successful automaker from Germany.
BMW ( Bavarian Motor Works)
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, or Bavarian motor works(BMW) is a multinational manufacturer of luxury cars and motorcycles headquarted in MUNICH, BAVARIA Germany.
The corporation was founded in 1916 as a manufacturer of aircraft engines, which it produced from 1917 until 1918 and again from 1933 to 1945.
In 2017, BMW was the world's fourteenth-largest producer of motor vehicles, with 2,279,503 vehicles produced. The company has significant motor-sport history, especially in touring cars, sports cars, and the Isle of Man TT.
History
Otto Flugmaschinenfabrik was founded in 1910 by Gustav Otto in Bavaria. 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 the original company to use the name was founded by Karl Rapp (initially as Rapp Motorenwerke GmbH). The name and Rapp Motorenwerke's engine-production assets were transferred to Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in 1922, who adopted the name the same year. BMW's first product 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, farm equipment, household items and railway brakes. The company produced its first motorcycle, the BMW R 32 in 1923.
V12 Fighter Aircraft
BMW became an automobile manufacturer in 1928 when it purchased Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach, which, at the time, built Austin Sevens under licence under the Dixi marque.
The first car sold as a BMW was a rebadged 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 aircraft engine production using as many as 40,000 slave laborers. These consisted primarily of prisoners from 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-Benz.
A large investment in BMW by Herbert Quandt and Harald Quandt 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 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 all. One of his battery factories had its own on-site concentration camp, complete 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 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, however the takeover was not successful and was causing BMW large financial losses. In 2000, BMW sold off most of the Rover brands, retaining only the Mini brand.
In 1998, BMW also acquired the rights to the Rolls-Royce brand from Vickers Plc.
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.
The first modern mass-produced turbocharged petrol engine was introduced in 2006, (from 1973 to 1975, BMW built 1672 units of a turbocharged M10 engine for the BMW 2002 turbo), with most engines switching over to turbocharging over the 2010s. The first hybrid BMW was the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid 7, and BMW's first mass-production electric car was the BMW i3 city car, which was released in 2013, (from 1968 to 1972, BMW built two battery-electric BMW 1602 Elektro saloons for the 1972 Olympic Games). 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).
In January 2021, BMW announced that its sales in 2020 fell by 8.4% due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions. However, in the fourth quarter of 2020, BMW witnessed a rise of 3.2% of its customers' demands.
On 18 January 2022, BMW announced a new limited edition M760Li xDrive simply called "The Final V12," the last BMW series production vehicle to be fitted with a V-12 engine.
BMW and Toyota aim to sell jointly-developed hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as soon as 2025.
The details of BMW war crimes
In March 2016, on its 100th anniversary, German car giant BMW apologized for its wartime past, expressing its “profound regret” for supplying Nazis with vehicles and using slave laborers.
Adolf Hitler tours a BMW plant in Munich with CEO Franz-Josef Popp in 1935.
Bayerische Motoren Werke –The Bavarian Motor Works – was founded in Munich during the First World War on March 16, 1916. In World War II, BMW designed engines for Nazi fighter planes, such as the Focke Wulf FW190. German planes gained air superiority over the British and French thanks to the high-performance engines produced by BMW, which replaced the original Mercedes engine.
“Under the National Socialist regime of the 1930s and 40s, BMW AG operated exclusively as a supplier to the German arms industry,” the company stated. “As demand for BMW aero engines increased, forced laborers, convicts and prisoners from concentration camps were recruited to assist with manufacturing them.”
The company said that in 1983 BMW “became the first industrial corporation to initiate a public debate about this chapter of its history” with the publication of a book entitled, ‘BMW – A German History.’” In 1999, BMW became a founding member of the foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” for the compensation of former forced laborers.
BMW’s history is further clouded by the ownership of the Quandt family, which bought a controlling interest in the company after the war. In 2011, the family admitted involvement in Nazi crimes following the publication of a report it commissioned by historian Joachim Scholtyseck, which documented that Gunther Quandt and his son Herbert were guilty of using slave labor, taking over Jewish firms and doing business with the highest echelons of the Nazi party.
In 1923, Gunther Quandt became the majority shareholder of AFA a company that manufactured batteries for the German military. He became a Nazi Party member in 1933 and, four years later, Hitler awarded Gunther the title Wehrwirtschaftsführer - leader of the armament economy.
Background of AFA and Varta Battery Factories
Adolph Mueller and Paul Buesche founded a battery company in January of 1888 called the Buesche and Mueller Tudor System Battery Factory. They opened a small factory in Hagen with 40 employees and had a strong client base by 1889. Then, Buesche left the business and Einbeck joined it to create Mueller and Einbeck. This company formed a joint stock company with Siemens AG and AEG AG: Accumulatoren-Fabrik AG or AFA for short. AFA grew quickly and began monopolizing the battery industry, taking over 11 battery companies in Germany and 14 in other countries by 1909. AFA’s plant in Hagen produced large industrial batteries, such as those for streetcars and train cars. In 1904, AFA founded VARTA Accumulatoren Gesellschaft mbH as its subsidiary. Varta’s plant in Berlin produced mainly low-current batteries. World War I hurt AFA and Varta’s business, but Germany’s post-war demands boosted profits. AFA expanded during the 1920’s, enlarging factories in Berlin and Hagen and re-internationalizing its network of subsidiaries and branch offices. The Great Depression hit the battery industry hard, but it bounced back by 1939 and started war production for Germany. However, air raids damaged many of its factories, especially the Hagen plant.
The Soviets dismantled and shipped the equipment of two Berlin factories to the Soviet Union and the British Army seized the Hanover plant. After the war, AFA and Varta resumed their production and expanded, making more kinds of batteries and acquiring more international cliental. By 1962, Varta was producing highly profitable and popular automobile batteries and AFA’s stockholders voted to change AFA’s name, as well as its several other subsidiaries, to Varta.
Gunther Quandt
Gunther Quandt became AFA’s majority shareholder in 1923. Gunther gave generous donations to the Nazis and joined Hitler’s National-Socialist Party in 1933. Gunther was a strong supporter and financier of the Nazis, as well as close friends with many prominent party members. His plants produced batteries that became significant components of numerous German military vehicles and weapons, such as the V-2 rocket. In 1910, Gunther had a son named Herbert with his first wife. Herbert became director of personnel on AFA’s supervisory board in 1940. Gunther had another son, during his second marriage, named Harald. In 1937, Adolf Hitler appointed Gunther to the Leader of the Armament Economy and awarded him handsome profits.
As an interesting side note, Quandt’s ex-wife, Magda Behrend Rietschel, married Joseph Goebbels, and committed suicide with him – after murdering their six children – in Hitler's bunker in 1945.
Forced Labor in the Camps
According to historians, Jewish forced laborers were used in at least one of Quandt’s companies as early as 1938. However, beginning in 1941, thousands of forced laborers from concentration camps were used in at least three factories in Hanover, Berlin and Vienna. A concentration camp, complete with gallows and an execution area, was set up on the grounds of AFA’s Hanover location in 1943 for the Jews and resistance fighters forced to work there. Some historians report that AFA preferred to keep its qualified German workers. Forced labor was used at AFA’s Stocken and Hagen plants beginning in 1942. Herbert was also the director of a Berlin-based AFA subsidiary, Pertrix GmbH. The company used female slave laborers, including Polish women who had been transferred from Auschwitz. Indeed, AFA had no moral objection to the use of other forced laborers. The extent to which the Quandts’ post-war assets were in fact derived from forced labor is undetermined.
Slave Labourers working at a BMW Factory
The prisoners were forced to work in lethal conditions. Provided with neither protective clothing nor drinking water, the slaves were exposed to poisonous gases, produced by heavy metals such as cadmium and lead, and subjected to frequent beatings with hoses filled with sand. Documents reveal that the company calculated that there would be a turnover rate of 80 people dying each month, with each slave lasting six months.
According to the account of a Ukrainian prisoner, whose brother was shot for being a member of a Communist resistance group that blew up railroad-bridge, there were Ukrainians, French, Russians, homosexuals and Jews in the camps. When the ally planes began attacking Germany, the SS lined the prisoners on the road military style so that the allied planes would mistake them for German soldiers and strafe them. Hundreds of prisoners were killed this way. When the allies tried to bomb the Varta battery plant with phosphorus bombs, the SS commanded the prisoners to pick up the numerous unexploded bombs, resulting in the deaths of many more. When a bomb landed on the part of the factory where the Ukrainian prisoner was working, he managed to escape and was hidden by a doctor in Hagen until the British liberated the camps and the factories.
Post-War
After the war, the prosecutors at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal charged and convicted several industrial head honchos such as Friedrich Flick, Gustav Krupp Von Bohlen und Halbach, and the directors of the IG Farben chemicals conglomerate for producing the Zyklon B gas used in the gas chambers. They convicted several other big business owners to several years of detention and confiscated their fortunes. Their businesses were returned to them by 1950. The Quandts, however, were not convicted. Gunther was arrested and interned on suspicion of war crimes in 1946 but it was determined he was innocent and he released in 1948. Gunther claimed he was the Nazi’s pawn and they exploited him. The Americans dismissed his case and considered him a “passive follower” or “collaborator.” However, Benjamin Ferencz, an American prosecutor at Nuremberg, said that there was ample evidence for Quandt’s conviction. The more likely reason that he was not punished was that the Americans wanted him to continue battery production to serve their interests.
Furthermore, the prosecution of industrial bosses was only symbolic, for they were all released by 1950. Similarly, Hebert’s battery factories were producing batteries for British weapon systems soon after the war and they awarded him operating protection. Evidence did not indicate that his factories utilized in forced labor.
Gunther died in 1954 while in Cairo and split his empire between Herbert and Harald. In 1959, Herbert bought BMW and his heirs, including wife Johanna, daughter Susanna Klatten and son Stefan, control 47% stake in BMW. The Quandts also control large stakes in Atlanta pharmaceuticals and other German companies. Most German companies such as BMW, Volkswagen and Deutsch Bank have explored their own wartime crimes, such as slave labor, during WWII and made generous donations to survivor relief funds. In contrast, the Quandts have remained silent about their past, protecting their over $34 billion holdings. As one of the wealthiest families in Germany, they donate primarily to political parties, including the Christian Democratic Union, the Christian Social Union and the liberal Free Democratic Party. In the 1970’s, a group of surviving laborers petitioned the Quandt family for compensation and were rejected.
In 1992, Rudiger Jungbluth released a biography about the Quandts called Die Quandts: Ihr leiser Aufstieg zur mächtigsten Wirtschaftsdynastie Deutschlands (The Quandts: Their Silent Rise to Germany’s Most Powerful Economic Dynasty). On September 30, 2007, and with no prior advertising, a documentary called The Silence of the Quandts (Das Schweigen der Quandts), was aired on television and brought the Quandt family’s past to the public eye. Its producers, Eric Friedler and Barbara Siebert, spent five years studying documents and records pertaining to the Quandts’ past.
BMW MOTORCYCLES
BMW began production of motorcycle engines and then motorcycles after World War I. Its motorcycle brand is now known as BMW Motorrad. Their first successful motorcycle after the failed Helios and Flink, was the "R32" in 1923, though production originally began in 1921. This had a "boxer" twin engine, in which a cylinder projects into the air-flow from each side of the machine. Apart from their single-cylinder models (basically to the same pattern), all their motorcycles used this distinctive layout until the early 1980s. Many BMW's are still produced in this layout, which is designated the R Series.
The entire BMW Motorcycle production has, since 1969, been located at the company's Berlin-Spandau factory.
During the Second World War, BMW produced the BMW R75 motorcycle with a motor-driven sidecar attached, combined with a lockable differential, this made the vehicle very capable off-road.
In 1982, came the K Series, shaft drive but water-cooled and with either three or four cylinders mounted in a straight line from front to back. Shortly after, BMW also started making the chain-driven F and G series with single and parallel twin Rotax engines.
In the early 1990s, BMW updated the airhead Boxer engine which became known as the oilhead. In 2002, the oilhead engine had two spark plugs per cylinder. In 2004 it added a built-in balance shaft, an increased capacity to 1,170 cc (71 cu in) and enhanced performance to 75 kW (101 hp) for the R1200GS, compared to 63 kW (84 hp) of the previous R1150GS. More powerful variants of the oilhead engines are available in the R1100S and R1200S, producing 73 and 91 kW (98 and 122 hp), respectively.
In 2004, BMW introduced the new K1200S Sports Bike which marked a departure for BMW. It had an engine producing 125 kW (168 hp), derived from the company's work with the Williams F1 team, and is lighter than previous K models. Innovations include electronically adjustable front and rear suspension, and a Hossack-type front fork that BMW calls Duolever.
BMW introduced anti-lock brakes on production motorcycles starting in the late 1980s. The generation of anti-lock brakes available on the 2006 and later BMW motorcycles paved the way for the introduction of electronic stability control, or anti-skid technology later in the 2007 model year.
BMW has been an innovator in motorcycle suspension design, taking up telescopic front suspension long before most other manufacturers. Then they switched to an Earles fork, front suspension by swinging fork (1955 to 1969). Most modern BMWs are truly rear swingarm, single sided at the back (compare with the regular swinging fork usually, and wrongly, called swinging arm). Some BMWs started using yet another trademark front suspension design, the Telelever, in the early 1990s. Like the Earles fork, the Telelever significantly reduces dive under braking.
BMW Group, on 31 January 2013, announced that Pierer Industrie AG has bought Husqvarna Motorcycles for an undisclosed amount, which will not be revealed by either party in the future. The company is headed by Stephan Pierer (CEO of KTM). Pierer Industrie AG is 51% owner of KTM and 100% owner of Husqvarna.
In September 2018, BMW unveiled a new self-driving motorcycle with BMW Motorrad with a goal of using the technology to help improve road safety. The design of the bike was inspired by the company's BMW R1200 GS model.
Architecture
The global BMW Headquarters in Munich represents the cylinder head of a 4-cylinder engine. It was designed by Karl Schwanzer and was completed in 1972. The building has become a European icon and was declared a protected historic building in 1999. The main tower consists of four vertical cylinders standing next to and across from each other. Each cylinder is divided horizontally in its center by a mold in the facade. Notably, these cylinders do not stand on the ground; they are suspended on a central support tower.
BMW "Piston Styled" Headquarters In Munich. Bavaria. Germany
BMW Museum is a futuristic cauldron-shaped building, which was also designed by Karl Schwanzer and opened in 1972. The interior has a spiral theme and the roof is a 40-metre diameter BMW logo.
BMW Welt, the company's exhibition space in Munich, was designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au and opened in 2007. It includes a showroom and lifting platforms where a customer's new car is theatrically unveiled to the customer.
Latest models of BMW cars
3 Series (G20/G21)2019–presentCompact executive car
1 Series (F40)2019–presentSubcompact car
X6 (G06)2019–presentMid-size luxury SUV
X7 (G07)2019–presentFull-size luxury SUV
2 Series (F44)2019–presentSubcompact car
4 Series (G22/G23/G26)2020–presentCompact executive car
iX32020–presentCompact luxury SUV
iX2021–presentMidsize luxury SUV
i42021–presentCompact executive car
2 Series (G42)2021–presentSubcompact car
2 Series (U06)2021–presentSubcompact MPV
7 Series (G70)2022–presentFull-size luxury car
i72022–presentFull-size luxury car
latest BMW Motorcycles
· BMW F650GS & F800GS
· BMW F800R
· BMW F800S
· BMW F800ST
· BMW G310R
· BMW G310RR
· BMW G310GS
· BMW G450X
· BMW G650 Xmoto, Xchallenge, and Xcountry
· BMW R1200GS
· BMW R1200R
· BMW R1200RT
· BMW R1200S
· BMW R18
· BMW K1200LT
· BMW K1300GT
· BMW K1300R
· BMW K1300S
· BMW K1600GT and K1600GTL
· BMW S1000RR
· BMW S1000XR
BMW In the News (for bad reasons)
BMW denies ‘self-driving’ electric car caused deadly traffic pileup
BMW is denying a claim by German law enforcement officials that one of its self-driving electric vehicles was autonomous at the time that it veered into opposing traffic and caused a four-car pile-up, killing one person and injuring nine others.
An all-electric BMW iX SUV crossed into the opposite lane of the B28 federal highway near Roemerstein on Monday, colliding into two vehicles and indirectly causing two others to crash into each other, according to authorities.
A 33-year-old woman was killed and nine other people, including the 43-year-old driver of the BMW and his 18-month-old passenger, were seriously injured.
Investigators at the scene said that the BMW vehicle was a test car that was in self-driving mode at the time of the accident.
But while BMW confirmed that one of its vehicles was involved in the crash, it denied the authorities’ claims that the driver was not actively steering at the time of the accident.
A BMW spokesperson told Reuters that the car is fitted with Level 2 driver assistance systems in which “the driver always remains responsible.”
Level 2 systems brake automatically, accelerate, and take over steering, according to the company website.
In Level 1 cars, the “driver assistance systems” support the driver, but do not take control of the vehicle, BMW says.
The German automaker said it was in close contact with investigators.
Auto and tech companies at the forefront of developing autonomous vehicles have been busy working out the kinks as several high-profile accidents drew scrutiny from regulators.
Apple’s self-driving vehicles struggled to navigate roadways, bumped into curbs, and veered out of lanes in the middle of intersections near the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters, according to a recent report published by The Information.
Earlier this summer, federal investigators traveled to Florida to probe a fatal collision involving a Tesla.
Two people died in a crash along I-95 near Gainesville when a 2015 Tesla rear-ended a tractor-trailer. While the Tesla boasts semi-autonomous features, investigators have so far been mum as to whether those functions were active at the time of the accident.
Parked BMWs bursting into flames leave owners with questions
BMW owners across the country are asking how their parked car could catch fire
ehicle owners and fire departments across the country are asking BMW to explain how some parked cars could suddenly burst into flames.
An ABC News investigation airing today on Good Morning America, World News Tonight with David Muir and Nightline discovered dozens of incidents in which the luxury cars caught fire even though owners reported they had parked their cars and turned them off.
After initially saying they were unaware of any such incidents, a BMW spokesman says the company has investigated the fires brought to its attention by ABC News and has “not seen any pattern” related to a “product defect.”
For one such owner, Bill Macko, BMW wasn’t just a car. It was an identity.
The 55-year-old small business owner says he had bought seven luxury vehicles from the German automaker since 2000. He was a dues-paying member of the BMW Car Club of America, so he read BMW magazines, carried BMW luggage and wore BMW clothes. He was such a BMW enthusiast that he became, he says, a kind of unofficial brand ambassador, introducing so many new customers to the local BMW dealership that the salesmen occasionally cut him a check for his services.
“I was an aficionado,” Macko said. “I had brought so many people on board to BMWs, it was crazy. Everybody knew that I loved them so much … I mean, I lived the product, you know?”
On the night of Dec. 1, 2015, however, Macko says his 2008 BMW X5 suddenly and inexplicably caught fire as it sat parked in his garage in Olney, Maryland. Macko’s wife had just returned from a short drive, parked the car and turned it off. She entered the house and told Macko she noticed a strange smell in the car, and when Macko walked into the garage to check it out, he arrived just in time to hear a “snap, crackle, pop” and see the car burst into flames.
Macko and his wife ran from the house as the fire engulfed the garage and spread throughout both the lower and upper floors. Dozens of firefighters arrived to battle the blaze, and the Mackos watched, from a neighbor’s yard, as their home burned to the ground.
“You cannot do a thing,” Macko said. “That’s the sad part about it.”
Macko had brought the car in for service at the dealership just days before, so he initially thought the fire had been caused by the new battery the mechanics had installed, but once the fire was out, he got another surprise. He learned he’s not the only BMW owner to be left asking questions in the wake of a mysterious fire that started after the car was shut off.
Like many car manufacturers, BMW has issued recalls over the years for fire-related problems, but an ABC News investigation launched in collaboration with ABC-owned stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Raleigh, found more than 40 fires occurring in parked cars across the country in the last five years involving vehicles that did not have open recalls for fire-related issues.
Fire officials in Westchester County outside New York City told WABC-TV they were stunned when they learned how long a 2003 BMW had been sitting parked before it caught on fire.
“The owner told us that the car had been parked for at least four, three or four days,” Mamaroneck Fire Chief Tracey Schmaling told WABC investigative reporter Jim Hoffer. “Which we thought was a little peculiar.”
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