The BMW Group 

(legally, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, commonly abbreviated to BMW (German pronunciation: [ˌbeːʔɛmˈveː] ^ⓘ)), is a German multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. The company was founded in 1916 as a manufacturer of aircraft engines, which it produced from 1917 to 1918 and again from 1933 to 1945 creating engines for aircraft that were used in the Second World War.