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Biography of Ferdinand Porsche

Ferdinand Porsche founded a machine company under the Porsche brand in 1931. In the early 1920s, he studied the experience of making compressor engines Mercedes, on the basis of which later, together with his son, Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche, develops the first Volkswagen cars.

Short biography

German car designer Ferdinand Porsche was born on September 3, 1875 in the Austrian town of Maffersdorf. From an early age, he showed a keen interest in various technologies, especially those related to electricity. Since the end of the nineteenth century, Porsche has been successfully working as a vehicle developer, until, until 1931, he establishes his own company. In 1934 Porsche and his son, Ferdinand Anton Ernst, begin joint development of Volkswagen cars.

Early love of cars

Since childhood Ferdinand Porsche has taken a great interest in an electricity. In 1983, when he was 18 years old, Porsche arranges in Vienna to work in the electrical company “Bella

Egger & Co”, which later becomes known as “Brown Boveri”. Around the same time, he entered the Imperial Technical University in Reichenberg for a correspondence department. Only a few years later, Porsche, whose ability to be technically amazed by his superiors, is transferred from the ranks of ordinary workers to a leading position.

1897 is turning for Porsche. This year he designs the first stepped engine, the concept of which was developed by the American inventor Wellington Adams more than ten years ago. He conducts tests of this engine in Vienna and starts working in a new department of electric cars at the “Hofwagenfabrik Jacob Lohner & Co”, based in Vienna by the Austro-Hungarian military company of the joint imperial and royal army. Three years later, during the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, the stepped-up engine was presented in the latest development of the Loner-Porsche – a non-transfer vehicle from the “Hofwagenfabrik Jacob Lohner & Co”, the engineering capabilities of Porsche acquire worldwide fame. To his great satisfaction, the stepped

engine received universal recognition.

In the same 1900 Porsche tests his engine in the race at the Semmering Pass, not far from Vienna, in which he wins. In 1902, while on duty in the infantry reserve of the united imperial and royal army, where he was the driver of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Porsche gets the opportunity to see his developments in action while sitting at the wheel of a car with a stepped engine. In the future, Porsche successfully continues his journey in the field of engineering development.

Having worked for Loner for eight years, in 1906 Porsche became technical director of the Austrian branch of the company “Daimler”. In 1923, he moved to the company Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, located in Stuttgart, where he became a technical director and a member of the executive council. And here one of the main achievements of his career is the supervision of the creation of the first compressor car Mercedes. For his achievements in 1917 Porsche receives an honorary doctorate in the Imperial Technical University. In 1937, he received the German national award for his contribution to art and science.

Establishing a company

In 1931 Porsche left the company “Daimler” and founded his own company with the name, according to the documents registered in April 1931 in the Commercial Register, “Dr. Ing. Hc F. Porsche GmbH, Konstruktionen und Beratung, Motoren und Fahrzeuge”. In 1934, Porsche was actively involved in the development of the “people’s car” project of Adolf Hitler. And this year, working on the project together with his son Ferdinand Anton Ernst, whom he called Ferry, Porsche makes the first drawings for the future Volkswagen car. Since that time, father and son work together. During the Second World War, in 1942, they develop combat vehicles, including the German Tiger Tank – in those years the most powerful tank in the world.

When the war ended in 1945, Porsche was arrested by French soldiers and sentenced to imprisonment, which he served for 22 months. And at this time his son is working on the creation of a new racing car Cisitalia – a product of the company “Porsche”. There is an opinion that after returning from prison, the father told his son: “I would have created everything exactly the same, up to the last cog”. The family father-son team went down in history when in 1950 they presented the sport car “Prosh” to the world.

Death and heritage

Porsche died in Stuttgart on January 20, 1951 at the age of 75 years. Almost 60 years later, in 2009, on the outskirts of Stuttgart, in the district of Zuffenhausen, the Porsche Museum opens.