The best-known manufacturer of high-end automobiles, BMW, meets Monday 100 years, marked by the history of Germany and an amazing career that began with the manufacture of aircraft engines.
The company which became one of the emblems of German industry was born on March 7, 1916, during the First World War as “Factory Bavarian Aircraft” (Bayerische Flugzeugwerke).
Shortly after, after the defeat of Germany, the treaty of Versailles of 1919 prohibits the country that manufactures aircraft, so the company must reinvent itself.
In 1922 he is re-founded under the name Bayerische Motoren Werke (Factory Bavarian Motor), and adopts the blue and white logo with a helix, an emblem that combines the colors of the German state which is native and their first steps in the aviation sector.
“That for which is best known to BMW today, the cars, is what came last to complete its portfolio of activities,” says AFP Manfred Grunert, historian of the company.
Currently the company manufactures high-end cars and motorcycles of this brand, the luxury Rolls-Royce, the stylish Mini, and has 30 factories in 14 countries, employs about 116,000 employees and 2014 had a turnover of 80,000 million euros.
POWs
After launching its first model motorcycle in 1923, BMW launched in car manufacturing in 1928 with the purchase of a factory in Eisenach in central Germany.
In the 1930s creates the 326 saloon and 328 roadster and develops its own style, with the grille that became distinctive brand.
During the Nazi regime, the brand contributed to the arms industry and returned to its roots manufacturing aircraft engines.
Since 1939 the company uses thousands of prisoners of war and detainees from concentration camps in their factories, a dark chapter that remained muted until the 1980s
When the war ends, the company is no longer even a shadow of what was and survives manufacturing appliances. Production of motorcycles resumed in 1948 and the car in 1952, but success does not come so fast.
In 1959, the serious financial problems that swept throughout the decade led the company to be the verge of being absorbed by its rival, Daimler-Benz, but a group of rebel shareholders.
One of them, Herbert Quandt, the son of a well-known industrialist, saves the mark with a massive injection of capital.
“Without their commitment, today would be a factory BMW Daimler” estimated Grunert. The Quandt family is still today one of the largest shareholders of BMW with a share of 47%.
However, the name Quandt is also marked by the Nazi period, as the father of Herbert Guenther Quandt, she was married she became the wife of Joseph Goebbels and took the spoliation traders Jews to do business.
In the 1960s, stringing several hits with BMW sedan models and launches the slogan “driving pleasure”. Its president between 1970 and 1993, Eberhard von Kuenheim, who gives step towards internationalization.
In the 2000s the brand ventured beyond saloons and try the 4×4 city dwellers and some compact models and then becomes precursor of German industry of electric cars, with the BMWi3 model, . a car 100% electric
AFP
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