Picture of the Picture of WWII: 72 ton King Tiger with paratroopers on it
during Ardennes Breakout during last months of Third Reich Germany
QUOTES
“I would have built it exactly the same, right down to the last
screw.”
—Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche Biography
Inventor, Engineer (1875–1951)
Ferdinand Porsche founded the Porsche car company in 1931. In
the early 1920s, he oversaw the development of the Mercedes compressor car, and
later developed the first designs of the Volkswagen car with his son, Ferdinand
Anton Ernst Porsche.
German automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche was born on
September 3, 1875 in Maffersdorf, Austria. At a young age, he had an affinity
for technology, and was especially intrigued by electricity. Porsche worked as
a successful vehicle engineer from the late 1800s to 1931, when he founded his
own firm. In 1934, Porsche and his son, Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche,
collaborated to develop the first designs of the Volkswagen car.
Early Love of Cars
Born on September 3, 1875 in Maffersdorf, Austria, Ferdinand
Porsche became fascinated with electricity at a young age. In 1893, when he was
just 18 years old, Porsche landed a job at Bela Egger & Co., an electrical
company in Vienna that was later renamed Brown Boveri. Around the same time, he
enrolled as a part-time student at the Imperial Technical University in
Reichenberg (now called the Vienna University of Technology).
After only a few years at Bella Egger & Co., Porsche—whose
supervisors were thoroughly impressed by his technological skills—was promoted
from an employee to a management position. The year 1897 was full of milestones
for Porsche. That year, he built an electric wheel-hub motor, the concept for
which had been developed by American inventor Wellington Adams more than a
decade earlier; raced his wheel-hub motor in Vienna; and began working in the
newly created Electric Car Department at Hofwagenfabrik Jacob Lohner & Co.,
a Vienna-based company belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Army's joint Imperial
and Royal Army, or k.u.k. in 1898, Porsche developed the Egger-Lohner electric
vehicle C.2 Phaeton (also known as the P1), was the first electric car.
In 1900, Porsche's engineering abilities came under the
international spotlight in Paris, when his wheel-hub engine was used to power the
Lohner-Porsche—Hofwagenfabrik Jacob Lohner & Co.'s newly developed
non-transmission vehicle—at the World's Fair of 1900. To his great
satisfaction, Porsche's wheel-hub engine received wide acclaim.
Later in 1900, Porsche tested his engine in a race on the
Semmering circuit, near Vienna, and won. In 1902, he got to drive one of his
own designs while serving as a reserve foot soldier in the k.u.k. and,
subsequently, a driver for Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Porsche's engineering continued on a successful track. After
working at Lohner for nearly eight years, in 1906, he became technical manager
of the Austro-Daimler company. In 1923, he moved to the Stuttgart-based
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft company, becoming a technical manager and
executive board member. There, his career highlights included overseeing the
construction of the Mercedes compressor car. For his accomplishments, Porsche
received an honorary doctorate degree by the Imperial Technical University in
1917. In 1937, he was awarded the German National Prize for Art and Science.
Building a Company
Porsche left Daimler in 1931 to form his own firm, which he
named "Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH, Konstruktionen und Beratung für
Motoren und Fahrzeuge," according to Commercial Register documents from April
1931. In 1934, Porsche became deeply involved in Adolf Hitler's "people's
car" project. That year, while working on the project with son Ferdinand
Anton Ernst Porsche (born in 1909)—also known as Ferry—he developed the first
designs for the Volkswagen car. From that point on, father and son worked
together.
During World War II, Porsche and his son were tapped by Hitler
to produce a heavy tank for the Tiger Program. Porsche submitted a prototype
with an advanced drive system that was superior on paper but not on the
battlefield. Prone to breakdowns and crucial design flaws, a competing company
(Henschel & Sohn) got the contract to produce the Panzer tanks.
Ninety to one hundred Porsche Tiger chassis were produced and later some
converted into tank destroyers (Panzerjäger) called Ferdinand.
Mounted with a Krupps turret and 88 mm anti-tank gun, the long-range
weapon could take out enemy tanks before they reached their own range of
effective fire.
When the war ended in 1945, Porsche was arrested by French soldiers (for
his Nazi affiliation) and forced to serve a 22-month prison sentence. While he
was incarcerated, Ferdinand Anton oversaw the creation of a new racing car, the
Cisitalia, a Porsche-company product. To his son, upon his return, Porsche reportedly
said, "I would have built it exactly the same, right down to the last
screw." The father-son team went on to make history in 1950, when they
introduced the Porsche sports car.
Death and Legacy
Porsche died in Stuttgart on January 30, 1951, at the age of 75.
Nearly 60 years later, in 2009, the Porsche Museum opened in Zuffenhausen, a
suburb of Stuttgart.
