There have been many defining moments in the History of the BMW group. The group was founded in 1916, and was originally called Bayerische Flugzeug-Werke (BFW), standing for Bavarian Aircraft Works. In 1917 the company was renamed Bayerische Moteren Werke (BMW), standing for Bavarian Motor Works. The company constructed a plant in Munich and built engines for military aircraft there until 1918. BMW established plants over Germany that eventually underwent rapid expansion for the volume production of aircraft engines. In 1939, the BMW company took over Brandenburgische Motorenwerke, based in Berlin, Germany.
After WWII, the Munich plant had many serious damages from the air raids. In 1945, the US military government issued orders that the plant in Munich had to be dismantled. This caused BMW to lose control over its assets for at least four years, in other locations, even longer.
In 1948, the first volume-production motorcycle was sold in another country, and by 1950, motorcycles were already being exported. By 1967, The BMW Munich plat was no longer the largest plant in the world. Dingolfing took over the title after Munich reached its capacity.
In 1972, a BMW importer in South Africa seemed to be having issues with potentially facing bankruptcy. The Board of Management then set up a factory in South Africa which became the first production plant outside Germany. BMW gradually took over sales from all of its key markets with importers, starting with France. This was set up to protect profits, as well as to help grow European integration. In 1977, Berlin had a new BMW factory built, and six years later they opened their doors for manufacturing car components as well as motorcycles.
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