BMW Company (Bavarian Motor Works)
Introduction
BMW Company was established in 1913. The person who founded the company was Karl
Rapp. Before he worked in a German aircraft company as a director. He started the
business in a very small scale. The name was Rapp Motor Works. In 1917 he resigned, led
by Austrian engineer Franz-Joseph Popp, who changed the name to Bavarian Motor
Works. In the same year Max Frizz, the chief engineer designed the companys first aircraft
engine and when the treaty of Versailles prohibited German companies from producing
aircraft engines in 1919.
Then BMW switched to making airbrakes to railway cars. Then in 1923, he developed the
companys first motorcycle, R32 that held world speed records for motorcycle during most
of the 1930s.
In 1928 the company entered the automobile business by acquiring Fahrzeugwerke
Eisenach (Eisenach Vehicle Factory), a maker of small cars based in Eisenach, Germany.
In the 1930s BMW began producing a line of larger touring cars and sports cars,
introducing its highly successful model-the 328 sports car-in 1936.
After World War II ended in 1945, Allied forces dismantled the companys main factories.
BMW made kitchen and garden equipment before introducing a new, inexpensive
motorcycle to the German market in 1948. The companys return to auto production in the
1950s resulted in poor sales. In the 1960s the company turned its fortunes around by
focusing on sports sedans and compact touring cars, and it began to compete with
Mercedes-Benz in the luxury-car markets of Europe and the United States. BMWs U.S.
