History of Porsche

Ferdinand Porsche founded the company called "Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH" in 1931,[16] with main offices at Kronenstraße 24 in the centre of Stuttgart. Initially, the company offered motor vehicle development work and consulting,[16] but did not build any cars under its own name. One of the first assignments the new company received was from the German government to design a car for the people, that is a "Volkswagen".[16] This resulted in the Volkswagen Beetle, one of the most successful car designs of all time.[17] The Porsche 64 was developed in 1939 using many components from the Beetle.[16]

Porsche's tank prototype, the "Porsche Tiger", that lost to Henschel & Son's Tiger I.

Panzerjäger Tiger, after the loss of the contract to the Tiger I Porsche recycled his design into a tank destroyer.

During World War II,[18] Volkswagen production turned to the military version of the Volkswagen Beetle, the Kübelwagen,[18] 52,000 produced, and Schwimmwagen,[18] 14,000 produced. Porsche produced several designs for heavy tanks during the war, losing out to Henschel & Son in both contracts that ultimately led to the Tiger I and the Tiger II. However, not all this work was wasted, as the chassis Porsche designed for the Tiger I was used as the base for the Elefant tank destroyer. Porsche also developed the Maus super-heavy tank in the closing stages of the war, producing two prototypes.[19]

At the end of World War II in 1945, the Volkswagen factory at KdF-Stadt fell to the British. Ferdinand lost his position as Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen, and Ivan Hirst, a British Army Major, was put in charge of the factory. (In Wolfsburg, the Volkswagen company magazine dubbed him "The British Major who saved Volkswagen."[20]) On 15 December of that year, Ferdinand was arrested for war crimes, but not tried. During his 20-month imprisonment, Ferdinand Porsche's son, Ferry Porsche, decided to build his own car, because he could not find an existing...