Porsche

Who founded Porsche and when?

Ferdinand Porsche, a German-Bohemian automotive engineer, formally established Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH on 1931 together with two partners: Adolf Rosenberger, who had been a central figure in the formation of Auto Union, the German manufacturer that became a precursor to Audi; and Anton Piëch, an Austrian businessman who was at the time Ferdinand's son-in-law. The company name encodes Ferdinand's honorary academic title in full: Doktor-Ingenieur honoris causa, meaning Doctor of Engineering by honorary degree.

The main offices were established at Kronenstraße 24 in central Stuttgart. At its outset the company did not manufacture automobiles under its own name but instead offered vehicle development work and engineering consultancy to outside clients.

The Volkswagen Beetle commission

Among the earliest assignments accepted by the new firm was a brief from the German government to design an affordable car for the mass market — literally a Volkswagen, meaning people's car. The design that resulted was the Volkswagen Beetle, which went on to become one of the most successful automobile designs ever produced.

The Beetle's engineering influenced Porsche's own subsequent work. In 1939 the firm developed the Porsche 64, a vehicle that drew heavily on Beetle components. After the war, when parts were broadly scarce across Germany, the first Porsche road car, the 356, also made use of Beetle-derived parts including the engine case, transmission and several suspension components.

Porsche during World War II

During the war, Volkswagen production was redirected toward military vehicles derived from the Beetle. These included the Kübelwagen, of which 52,000 units were produced, and the amphibious Schwimmwagen, of which 15,584 were built. Ferdinand Porsche and his firm were simultaneously engaged in heavy-armour design for the German military.

Porsche submitted competing designs for contracts that ultimately produced both the Tiger I and the Tiger II heavy tanks, losing on both occasions to Henschel and Son. However, the chassis Porsche had developed for the Tiger I competition was not discarded; it was adapted as the platform for the Elefant tank destroyer. In the closing stages of the war, the company also developed the Maus super-heavy tank, with two prototypes completed.

Ferdinand Porsche's biographer, Fabian Müller, documented that the company had thousands of workers forcibly brought to its factories during the war. These forced labourers were required to wear the letter "P" on their clothing at all times. The initial stood not for Porsche but for Poland.

Post-war arrest and the founding of the 356

When the war ended in 1945, the Volkswagen factory at KdF-Stadt passed to British control, and British Army Major Ivan Hirst took charge of the facility. Ferdinand Porsche lost his position as chairman of the Volkswagen board of management. On 15 December 1945 he was arrested for war crimes, though he was never tried, and remained imprisoned for twenty months until his release in August 1947.

During his father's imprisonment, Ferry Porsche steered the company through its most precarious period. Unable to find a production car that suited his requirements, Ferry resolved to build his own. The first examples of what became the Porsche 356 were assembled in a small sawmill in Gmünd, Austria, with an aluminium body, produced by a new entity called Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH, which Ferry founded together with his sister Louise.

The 356 received road certification in 1948. When German auto dealers were shown a prototype, pre-orders reached the threshold required to begin production. After Ferdinand's release, production of the 356 passed to the original Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH entity in 1950. The 356 is widely regarded as the first true Porsche because it was the first model the company sold.

Manufacturing facilities at Zuffenhausen

Once the 356 moved into steel-bodied production, Porsche contracted Reutter Karosserie, a Zuffenhausen-based coachbuilder that had previously collaborated with Porsche on Volkswagen Beetle body prototypes, to manufacture the 356's steel bodywork. In 1952 Porsche constructed the Werk 2 assembly plant directly across the street from the Reutter Karosserie premises.

The road running in front of Werk 1, the oldest Porsche building in Zuffenhausen, is today named Porschestraße, reflecting the lasting association between the marque and that district of Stuttgart.

What does the Porsche logo represent?

The Porsche emblem derives from the coat of arms of the Free People's State of Württemberg as it existed under the Weimar Republic, a state that had Stuttgart as its capital. After 1945 the successor state of Württemberg-Hohenzollern used the same arms until 1952, while Stuttgart itself served as capital of the adjacent state of Württemberg-Baden during those years. The arms of Stuttgart appear at the centre of the logo as an inescutcheon, acknowledging the company's Stuttgart headquarters.

The design technically departs from conventional heraldry: authentic heraldic achievements do not incorporate the name of the armiger or the name of the armiger's home town within the shield itself, yet the Porsche emblem includes both the word Porsche and the word Stuttgart. In 1952, Württemberg-Baden, Württemberg-Hohenzollern and Baden were merged into the present state of Baden-Württemberg following West Germany's post-war political consolidation, but the older Württemberg arms survived unchanged in the company's badge.

Ferdinand Porsche did not live to see that consolidation. On 30 January 1951 he died from complications arising from a stroke, shortly before the formation of Baden-Württemberg.

Ownership and integration with Volkswagen

In 2009 Porsche entered an agreement with Volkswagen AG to create an integrated working group by combining the two companies' car-manufacturing operations. The arrangement formalised a relationship that had deep historical roots stretching back to the Beetle commission of the 1930s.

By 2015, Porsche Automobil Holding SE — the holding company spun off from the original Porsche firm — had acquired a controlling interest in the Volkswagen Group. That group encompasses, among other marques, Audi and Lamborghini as subsidiaries, placing a significant portion of the global premium and luxury car industry under a corporate structure ultimately connected to the Porsche family name.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Porsche — Factual basis of this entry