BMW marks 100th anniversary

This file photo taken in the year 1962 shows a BMW 1500-BMW celebrates its 100th birthday, Monday / AFP-Yonhap

German luxury carmaker BMW marks its 100th anniversary on Monday, throwing a lavish event looking back at its often troubled history and forward as it seeks to adapt to the age of “personal mobility.”

Since its World War I beginnings, according to AFP, the company has grown into a multinational giant with plants in 14 countries, more than 116,000 employees and $88 billion in annual sales.

BMW today makes cars and motorcycles and its brands also include Rolls-Royce and Mini. The auto giant started life in far more troubled times ― on March 7, 1916, making aircraft engines as Germany’s “Bavarian Aircraft Factory.”

After WWI, when defeated Germany was forbidden from manufacturing aircraft, it renamed itself Bayerische Motoren Werke (“Bavarian Engine Factory”) in 1922.

BMW adopted a propeller-shaped logo as a salute to its aerospace origins, in Bavaria's traditional blue-and-white colors.

“The product for which BMW is best known nowadays was actually the last product to be taken into its portfolio,” Manfred Grunert, the company’s in-house historian was quoted as saying in an article released by AFP.

After producing its first motorcycle in 1923, BMW began making cars in 1928. From 1939 it used forced labor from concentration camps ― one of BMW's darkest chapters, which it only began to open up about in the 1980s.

In 1959, the group was about to be taken over by its arch-rival Daimler-Benz, but a group of shareholders rebelled.

During the 1960s, BMW launched its “Neue Klasse” limousines and in 1965 coined the advertising slogan "the joy of driving".

From the 1970s to 90s, it expanded abroad. BMW bought British Rover in 1994, but the company remained a financial millstone and was sold off again in 2000.

It has since diversified into four-wheel drives, compact cars and the fully electric i3 model range. As tech giants such as Google and Apple are eyeing the personal mobility market, the company launched its BMWi division in 2011 which also offers services like car sharing platform DriveNow.