BMW (Bavarian Motor Works)

The Bavarian Motor Works GmbH emerged from the Rapp-Motorenwerke GmbH founded in 1913 at Oberwiesenfeld, Munich and from 1917 onwards mainly manufactured aircraft engines for the German and Austrian military. Aircraft engine production can still be seen today in the company’s logo, in rotating propellers are depicted on a blue ground. In August 1918 the successful company, which was also a pioneer in aircraft technology, was converted into a public limited company. As a result of the Allies’ bans on production in connection with the Treaty of Versailles aircraft engine production had to be officially stopped and a replacement production built up. However, the development of aircraft engines was not given up entirely. From the beginning of the 1920s, BMW started manufacturing motorcycles and after acquiring the Eisenach Vehicle Works, also car production in 1928.

After the seizure of power by the Nazis, resumed aircraft engine construction in the company specially founded for it – BMW Flugmotorenbau GmbH, München – and in parallel with rearming the Nazi regime, expanded it within a few years to become its most important business sector. In 1936, an aircraft engine factory was founded in Eisenach, in Munich between 1936 and 1939 the Allach Assembly and Repair Works was built next to the Milbertshofen parent factory; in 1939, BMW took over the Brandenburg Motor Works in Berlin-Spandau.

By the start of the war, BMW was the most important employer in the private sector and the largest producer of aircraft engines in the Reich. After 1942 only armaments were produced, and predominantly aircraft engines. With the support of the Reich Aviation Ministry, BMW was also able to further expand its leading position in the development of jet engines. At the same time BMW manufactured the all-terrain and robust R 75 motorcycle and sidecar combination, which was equipped with a heavy machine gun for the passenger, and which was deployed in both Russia and Africa in large numbers. 

Despite conscription to the military, the numbers of people employed by the BMW group further increased during the war years. The great influence that BMW had due to its importance to the arms industry was asserted by the group in the appropriation of foreign civilians, POWS, ‘foreign laborers’ and concentration camp inmates. At the end of 1941, a barrack camp was built for several thousand forced laborers on the Munich-Allach works site in connection with its expansion for the serial production of the BMW 801 aircraft engine. By the middle of 1942, the proportion of foreign workers in the entire BMW group was 37%, two years later it was over 50% of all employees, in Munich-Allach it was considerably higher. In March 1943, the factory site in Allach was extended with the construction of a satellite camp of the Dachau Concentration Camp with about 30 buildings for up to 4,000 inmates. By the end of the war, over 8,000 people were crammed together there. The nearby forest provided the only protection during air raids. While after September 1943, activities were started to relocate production to various, less vulnerable locations in the Upper Bavarian region, in the Allgäu, Alsace and even underground, the lack of a consistent company strategy, the rapidly worsening war situation and the accompanying ad hoc political decisions thwarted these plans, however, and even significantly reduced production output.

After the end of the war, the various sites of the BMW armaments manufacturer, which were distributed all over the territory of the Third Reich including parts of other European countries, were seized by the Allies as reparations and the machines and other production equipment dismantled and taken away. Parts of the main Munich works were demolished or used to produce civilian goods, in the Allach works, the US army installed a repair workshop. In 1948 BMW resumed motorcycle production, from 1952 car manufacturing also started again. For a short period, the Group went back into the manufacture of aircraft engines, before this division was first transferred to MAN and finally to the newly founded MTU Aero Engines in 1969. From now on, BMW concentrated exclusively on the manufacture of cars and motorcycles and today is a key economic factor for Bavaria and at the same time one of the most important car manufacturers in the world.

In 1999, BMW became a founding member of the “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” foundation initiative; however, the BMW Group refused to legally recognize an obligation to pay compensation for the forced laborers used during the Third Reich.