The Daimler Company’s history began in the early 20th century with a series of innovative vehicles, and expanded to include factories for car, truck, and aircraft engine manufacturing.
This blog will look at the history of BMW, and will examine how it has evolved into the company we know today.
History of BMW: The Journey
1903: Daimler & Kuhl creates Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
Daimler-BMW AG was founded in Stuttgart in 1903. Though most people recognize the name Daimler, what many don’t know is that the original company was called Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) and was founded by August Daimler and Georg von Siemens.If your vehicle was made before 1981, the VIN may be shorter than 17 characters. This decoder works best with VIN lookups on vehicles made after 1981.VIN number check by visiting here.
This isn’t to be confused with Daimler BMW, the company that has been around for over a hundred years, as BMW is primarily a passenger car manufacturer.
DMG was originally based out of the city of Aachen, a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Daimler and Siemens founded the company to bring passenger cars to the burgeoning market in Europe. The company produced a single model of car, the “Automobil”, based on a 6-cylinder four-stroke engine.
History of BMW: Foundation
The first BMW was designed in 1904 by Gustav Heinrich in his hometown of Mannheim, Germany. The vehicle was purchased by Adolphus Busch, who would later start the still-existing US-based car and beverage company, Anheuser Busch.
Like many start-up companies in the early 20th century, Gustav Heinrich worked on developing a patentable vehicle. After failing to find a patent to buy, he eventually lost patience with trying to make money from the vehicle and let the contract to manufacture the vehicle lapse. He moved to Stuttgart to work on the patent for the future BMW.
Although the vehicle was not a commercial success, its success inspired Gabriel von Dormann to develop a similar vehicle at the Royal Driving School in Munich.
History of BMW: The Business
Daimler and BMW was founded by Carl BMW, Gottlieb Daimler, and Carl Becker on 1 July 1889 in Stuttgart. Carl BMW was born in 1840 and developed the first practical internal combustion engine. His main contribution to the world of transportation was the automobile. Gottlieb Daimler also was a chemist with an interest in road transportation. Carl Becker was a wealthy resident of Stuttgart who also worked as a teacher.
Initially, the automobile would not be commercially successful. BMW and Becker experimented with internal combustion engines, but without much success. So, they bought a carriage factory and changed its name to Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft.
Their first car, which was driven by the Englishman George Bartholomae, had a very limited range.