BMW is a Munich company that began with engines

BMW is Bayerische Motoren Werke, which is Bavarian Motor Works in English. The company was founded in Munich in 1916 to build aircraft engines. Cars came later. The firm is still based in Munich.

What the desk is willing to print

That is the spine of the company, and it is enough to say without a brochure attached. Munich is the home city. Engines were the first product. The blue-and-white roundel is the mark people know. We are not going to repeat the folk story about what the roundel depicts. The mark is famous. The legend around it is not something this desk has checked.

BMW also builds motorcycles, and has for a long time, with a flat-twin engine as the layout people associate with the bikes. That is a second product line, not a footnote invented for a car story. When we name BMW in a later piece, we mean this company: Munich, engines first, cars as the business the public now means by the name.