Ferdinand Porsche

Ferdinand Porsche (3 September 1875 – 30 January 1951) was an Austrian-German automotive engineer and founder of the Porsche AG. He is best known for creating the first gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle (Lohner-Porsche), the Volkswagen Beetle, the Auto Union racing cars, the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, and several other important developments and Porsche automobiles.

During World War II, Porsche helped develop advanced military vehicles, including tanks and weapon systems. He was recognized with several important awards for his work.

Porsche was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1996 and was named the Car Engineer of the Century in 1999.

Early life

See also: Porsche family

Ferdinand Porsche was born to Anna Porsche and Anton Porsche in Maffersdorf, a place that was part of Austria-Hungary at the time and is now in the Czech Republic. He was their third child, and his father was a master craftsman who worked with metal.

From a young age, Ferdinand loved technology, especially electricity. Even while helping his father, he took night classes at a school in nearby Reichenberg (now called Liberec). At 18, he moved to Vienna and started working for an electrical company. There, he also attended university classes after work. During his time there, he built one of the first electric wheel-hub motors, inspired by an American inventor, and even raced it in 1897.

Early career

In the late 1890s, Ferdinand Porsche began working at a factory in Vienna that made carriages for important leaders. He helped create one of the first cars that could run on electricity, using batteries to power motors in the wheels. Though it could go fast, the heavy batteries made it struggle on hills and it didn’t go far.

Porsche then created a smarter design using a small gasoline engine to make electricity for the wheels, keeping a tiny battery as backup. This was the first car known to mix gasoline power with electric power. These early cars could reach speeds of about 56 kilometers per hour (35 mph) and set several speed records. Porsche later served as a driver for a royal prince before marrying and starting a family.

Austro-Daimler

In 1906, Austro-Daimler hired Ferdinand Porsche to be their main car designer. One of his most famous cars was made for a big race in 1910 called the Prince Henry Trial, named after Prince Heinrich of Prussia, a brother of Wilhelm II. This smart, 85 horsepower car won the top three spots, and people still call it the "Prince Henry" instead of its real name, "Modell 27/80". Porsche also made a 30 horsepower car called the Maja, named after the younger sister of Mercedes Jellinek.

By 1916, Porsche had become the managing director and received a special degree called "Dr. Ing. h.c." from the Vienna University of Technology. He kept making race cars and won 43 out of 53 races with a design from 1922. In 1923, Porsche left Austro-Daimler because they disagreed on how cars should be built in the future.

A few months later, he joined Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft in Germany as their Technical Director. In 1924, he got another special degree from the Stuttgart Technical University. While there, he created many successful race cars, including models with special engines that helped them win many races in the 1920s, such as the Mercedes-Benz SSK.

In 1926, Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft joined with Benz & Cie to become Daimler-Benz, and their cars were called Mercedes-Benz. Porsche’s idea for a small, light Mercedes-Benz car wasn’t liked by the company leaders, so he left in 1929 to work for Steyr Automobile. But because of the Great Depression, he lost his job there.

Founding of Porsche

Main article: Porsche

In April 1931, Porsche returned to Stuttgart and started his own company called Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH. With help from his son-in-law and a friend, he brought together several skilled workers he had worked with before.

Their first task was to design a car for Wanderer. As the company grew, Porsche also worked on his own car ideas. He used money from his life insurance to pay for this, and later got some support from Zündapp and NSU, though they later stopped helping.

In 1932, Auto Union was created, combining Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer. Porsche met with leaders of Auto Union to discuss new car designs.

Volkswagen Beetle and government commission

Main article: Volkswagen Beetle

In 1934, Porsche got a job from the government to design a car for ordinary people, called the Volkswagen. He finished the first models in 1935, and more were made ready for production from 1936 to 1939.

The car was similar to some designs by Hans Ledwinka of Tatra. There was a legal problem about this, but it was stopped when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. Volkswagen later paid a settlement.

Because of his work on the Volkswagen, Porsche became well-known and was praised. He joined the Nazi Party and the SS in 1937. During the war, his factory made military vehicles instead of the Volkswagen. After the war, the Volkswagen became famous as the Beetle. The city where the factory was built is now called Wolfsburg and is still where Volkswagen has its headquarters.

Auto Union racing car

Main article: Auto Union racing car

Auto Union got money from the government to make racing cars. They bought Porsche’s small company and its racing car project. Porsche focused more on the Volkswagen factory and let his son, Ferry, handle the racing projects. The racing cars were very successful until World War II started in 1939.

Military vehicles

Adolf Hitler talked with Porsche in 1934 about making cars that could be used for the military. Porsche thought cars should work for everyday use and in tough battle conditions. In 1938, leaders asked Porsche to design a small, strong car that could travel on and off roads.

Production of the Type 82 Kübelwagen began in 1940. By the end of the war, 50,435 of these cars were made. They were very useful and lasted a long time, becoming common in the German army, much like the jeep was for the Americans.

The Volkswagen Schwimmwagen was another special car that could drive in water. It used parts from an earlier Volkswagen design. From 1941 to 1944, 15,584 of these water cars were built, making it the most-produced water car in history.

By the end of World War II, Volkswagen had made 66,285 cars, but most went to the war, not to regular people. In 1961, some people who had paid for cars before the war got credit for new ones.

After the war began, Ferdinand Porsche led a group of experts advising on tank designs. He left in 1943 when his tank ideas were not chosen.

Porsche made a heavy tank design called the VK 45.01 (P), known as “Tiger (P)”. Because it was too complicated, another design was made instead. Ninety of these tanks were changed into anti-tank guns called Panzerjäger Tiger (P), nicknamed “Ferdinand”.

Porsche also worked on the very big Panzer VIII Maus tank. Only two examples of this 100-ton tank were ever built, and it remains the heaviest fully enclosed armored vehicle ever made.

Porsche was asked to design a special vehicle for the harsh conditions on the Eastern Front. The vehicle he designed, called the Type 175, was made at the Škoda automobile plant in Mladá Boleslav. It did not perform well and was used in France, the Netherlands, and the Battle of the Bulge instead, with only 206 made.

Near the end of the war, Porsche worked on a new engine for the V1 flying bomb. He finished the designs for the Porsche 109-005 engine, but it was never built.

After the war

In November 1945, Ferdinand Porsche was asked to continue designing the Volkswagen in France. He was also asked to help design a new car called the Renault 4CV, but this caused problems with the new leader of Renault.

On 15 December 1945, French authorities arrested Porsche and two others, including his son Ferry, on serious charges. Ferry was released after six months, but Ferdinand and another man were kept in prisons in France.

During this time, Ferry worked hard to keep the company running. He helped create a new division that repaired cars, water pumps, and winches. He also finished a contract to design a racing car called the Type 360 Cisitalia, but it never raced.

The company later began work on a new car, the Porsche 356, which was the first car to use the Porsche name. They moved from Stuttgart to Gmünd in Carinthia to avoid bombings. In Gmünd, they built 49 cars by hand in an old saw mill.

Return to Stuttgart

The Porsche family went back to Stuttgart in 1949, unsure how to begin their business again. Even though banks would not lend them money because the company's factory was still blocked by American rules, they still had many valuable things. Ferry Porsche took one of the special 356 cars from Gmünd and went to Volkswagen dealers to get orders. He asked the dealers to pay for the cars ahead of time.

The cars made in Stuttgart had a steel body attached to a central tube frame, instead of the aluminium body used in the first few cars made in Gmünd. When Ferry Porsche started the company again, he thought they could make about 1,500 cars. But in the next 17 years, more than 78,000 Porsche 356s were made.

Later, Porsche worked with Volkswagen and got a payment for every Volkswagen Beetle made. This gave Porsche a good amount of money as over 20 million of these cars were built.

In November 1950, Porsche visited the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg for the first time after World War II. He talked with Volkswagen's president, Heinrich Nordhoff, about the future of the VW Beetles, which were already being made in large numbers.

Porsche was later honored into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1996 and received the title of Car Engineer of the Century in 1999 after he passed away.

Views on labour

Porsche visited Henry Ford’s factory in Detroit many times. He saw how important it was to be productive and how workers and managers treated each other equally. Even as a special guest, he had to carry his own tray and eat with the workers.

Porsche focused a lot on making work more efficient. He looked at longer hours, faster work speeds, and new ways to save time. The Volkswagen factory finished in 1938. During this time, many workers from different places were brought in to help build the cars.

Reputation

Ferdinand Porsche was known for his big achievements in making cars and engines, and the companies he helped start became very famous around the world. But some people also talked about his time working with the Nazi government during World War II. Because of this, some places stopped honoring him in the way they used to.

In 2013, a town in Sudetenland, now called Vratislavice nad Nisou, took down signs that celebrated Porsche. They also changed a museum display to talk about both his car designs and his work for the Nazi government. This made some Porsche fans unhappy.

In 2019, a TV show told the story of Adolf Rosenberger, a Jewish man who helped start Porsche’s company. During World War II, Rosenberger was arrested and sent to a camp, and he lost his share of the company. After the war, Porsche and others gave him money, but his big role was not always remembered.

In 2022, a city in Austria changed the name of a street that used to be called “Porsche Road” because of Porsche’s work during the war. Porsche’s company said they did not agree with the change.