Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, commonly referred to as BMW. German manufacturer of luxury vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Germany. Founded in 1916 as a manufacturer of aircraft engines.

1916 is therefore considered BMW’s founding year 🇩🇪

Logo : as a portrayal of the movement of an aircraft propeller, the BMW logo with the white blades seeming to cut through a blue sky, BMW emblem overlaid on a rotating propeller, with the quarters defined by strobe-light effect, a promotion of an aircraft engine then being built by BMW under license from Pratt & Whitney.

BMW 132 Airplane

The BMW 132 – nine-cylinder radial aircraft engine, produced by BMW starting in 1933. BMW took over the license for manufacturing air-cooled radial engines from United States aircraft manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company on January 1928.

The nine-cylinder model Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet was initially manufactured virtually unchanged under the designation BMW Hornet. Soon BMW embarked on its own development.

The BMW name vanishes – for a time

In August 1918, Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH became a stock corporation. But the end of the First World War brought a halt to the construction of aircraft engines, as the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany from building them. So BMW shifted its focus to railway brakes and built-in motors.

This was so successful that the Berlin-based brakes company Knorr-Bremse AG took majority ownership of BMW in 1920, integrated the company and relocated to Munich. Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH as an independent company disappeared temporarily from the scene – albeit not for long.

All this means that BMW AG is the legal successor of BFW. The corporate headquarters and parent plant of the BMW Group are still located at the former BFW site in Milbertshofen, Munich to this day. And there’s something else the aircraft manufacturers bequeathed to BMW AG, too: BFW’s founding date of March 7, 1916 is considered to be BMW’s official birthday.

Conclusion: 5 Facts ⚡️

1. BMW is located in Germany, a country in Central Europe. It is the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union.
2. Germany is situated between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south; it covers an area of 357,022 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi), with a population of over 83 million within its 16 constituent states.
3. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The nation’s capital and largest city is Berlin, and its financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr.
4. BMW Slogan : ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine‘ MINI Cooper is owned by BMW since 2000
5. BMW Group sold 2,399,636 units in 2023 and Sales of fully-electric vehicles more than doubled to 215,755 units with MINI Electric* is best-selling MINI model variant