It all started with Karl Friedrich Rapp who started the Rapp-Motorenwerke in 1913. It was the high time of the war, and the Rapp company produced war planes for the army, but these planes were flawed so, the company didn’t last for long. And the competition Gustav Otto took over with flying colors. Because the Rapp business could take up the demands of the war, the Gustav Otto flourished by putting forward their best work.
Till the end of 1916, the Rapp was barely surviving, but as it was about to end the whole business, it was saved by Prussian army, who ordered around 600 engines from Rapp. This gave the boast that the business needed to stand on its feet again. Later on, they formed a kinship with Fran-Josef Popp Camillo Castiglioni, giving birth to a new entity Bayerische Flugzeug-Werke (BFW). This was the former life of BMW.
The first logo of the BFW was created in 1917, which had the colors of Bavarian state. Albeit the fact that the logo has been changed a lot since then but the true colors of the Bavarian state remained the same.
In 1922, BMW moved to Oberwiesenfeld airstrip near Munich. Which later on became the headquarters for the whole BMW assembly. Till date the headquarters is there, and it produces more than 200,000 cars annually and has over 9,000 employees.
In 1923, was the year when the coming took as 360 turn and left the planes behind to manufacture motorcycles. Huge change nonetheless, form plane engines to complete vehicles. R32 was the name of their first production. The design was perfect, so much so, that the version of that model is still used today.
With the epic success of their motorcycles, the company bought Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach, a and started manufacturing cars. But these productions weren’t done in Munich rather in Germany at the old Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach industry. Till 1932 they kept using inspired designs, that were burrowed from an Austin Motor Company.
But soon after they came up with their own, unique designs.
