The history of BMW
It started building aircraft engines, survived bankruptcy thanks to a family that bet its fortune and reinvented itself as Germany's most desired premium brand.
BMW's blue-and-white logo represents, according to an oft-repeated legend, a spinning aircraft propeller. The reality is more prosaic and more interesting: they are the colours of the Bavarian flag. But the myth holds a grain of truth, because BMW was born from aircraft engines, survived an international ban, narrowly dodged bankruptcy and reinvented itself until it became a byword for the joy of driving.
From aircraft engines to the BMW name
The official founding date is 7 March 1916, with the registration of Bayerische Flugzeugwerke. The name Bayerische Motoren Werke, BMW, came in 1917, when the aircraft-engine firm Rapp Motorenwerke was renamed. Its first product was an aircraft engine, the BMW IIIa. The famous circular logo was registered in 1917 with the Bavarian colours; the spinning-propeller reading is a later reinterpretation, from the late 1920s, not the original design.
From planes to motorcycles and cars
The Treaty of Versailles barred Germany from building aircraft engines after the First World War, and BMW had to reinvent itself. In 1923 it launched its first motorcycle, the R 32, with the opposed-cylinder boxer engine that remains its hallmark. In 1928 it acquired the Eisenach factory and, with it, the Dixi, a British Austin 7 built under licence that became the brand's first automobile.
On the brink of bankruptcy
By the late 1950s, BMW was on the ropes. It sold the tiny Isetta bubble car and luxury V8 sedans, but lacked a model for the middle class. Losses kept growing. In December 1959, shareholders rejected a takeover proposal from Daimler-Benz. Instead, the businessman Herbert Quandt raised his stake to nearly 50%, risking much of his fortune on a company many had written off.
Herbert Quandt's business instinct and his ability to make courageous decisions at that time set a new course for our company and secured BMW's ability to control its own future. — Joachim Milberg, former Supervisory Board Chairman of BMW.
The bet took shape in the Neue Klasse, the new class, unveiled around 1961 and 1962. That mid-range model saved the company and laid the foundations for everything that followed.
The birth of a premium brand
On the Neue Klasse, BMW built the 02 series and then the legendary 3, 5 and 7 Series that defined the concept of the premium sports sedan. In 1974, Martin Puris's agency coined the slogan the brand would turn into a philosophy: The Ultimate Driving Machine.
BMW also had its failures. In 1994 it bought Britain's Rover Group, a deal that ended in dismantlement in 2000: it sold Land Rover to Ford and MG Rover for a symbolic pound. From that wreck, however, it salvaged a jewel, the MINI brand, which it revived to enormous success. Since 2003, BMW has also built Rolls-Royce cars.
BMW today and the electric future
In 2024, the BMW Group delivered 2.45 million cars and more than 210,000 motorcycles, with revenue of 142.4 billion euros and around 159,000 employees. Sales of fully electric vehicles reached 426,594 units. Its big bet is the new Neue Klasse platform, fully electric, whose first model, the iX3, was revealed in Munich in September 2025.
What BMW teaches us
BMW is a story of reinvention under pressure. Three times, war, bankruptcy and the Rover disaster, the company could have vanished, and three times it found a way out by focusing on what it did best: engines and engineering. The lesson for any business is that survival does not depend on avoiding crises, but on having a clear identity and someone willing to bet on it when everyone else doubts.
Sources
- BMW Group — https://www.bmwgroup.com/en/company/history.html
- BMW Group Report 2024 — https://www.bmwgroup.com/en/report/2024/index.html
- BMW Group PressClub — https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0091393EN/bmw-group-celebrates-successful-new-beginning-50-years-ago?language=en
- BMW Group PressClub — https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0453185EN/bmw-group-posts-third-quarter-sales-growth?language=en
- BMW Group — https://www.bmwgroup.com/en/company/neue-klasse.html