EDITORS' NOTE TO THE READER: This is the official hagiography, therefore it may include some elements which are either redacted, incomplete when not utterly misleading or incorrect (e.g. on the role of the family during the Nazi regime). Also note that the fundamental role of financial backers like Adolf Rosenberger and senior Porsche staff (e.g. Erwin Komenda) had always been downplayed for internal "political" and marketing reason. Please use your best judgement.

Loosely translated from the original German

If you want to be precise, a bank collapse triggered everything: as a result of the economic events in the USA, the Austrian Bodenkreditanstalt, the main financier of the famous Steyr automobile company, whose chief designer was Dr.h.c. Ferdinand Porsche, failed in 1930. The development triggered by this also led to the departure of Dr. Porsche, who now made a decision that was probably most in keeping with his nature: he set up his own business.

In December 1930, Dr. Porsche moved to Stuttgart with twelve trusted employees, where he had previously worked as technical director of Daimler Benz.

On April 25, 1931, the company was entered in the commercial register as "Dr.Ing.h.c.F. Porsche GmbH, Design and Consulting for Engines and Vehicles, Stuttgart, Kronenstrasse 24, Telephone 24301."

Porsche welded together a "team" of engineers who would go through fire for him, so to speak, because they were continually impressed by his creative achievements. It was not always a rosy time for engineers, but the Porsche office prevailed. And some of the best known, one must say the most famous designs, were created at that time. In 1931, the Zündapp company commissioned Porsche to build a small car, but only prototypes were developed. The same thing happened with NSU in 1933; this vehicle already looked very similar to today's Volkswagen and was designed according to exactly the same design principles.

At about the same time, Ferdinand Porsche and his team designed a racing car, initially without an order, entirely on their own initiative, which was later taken over by Auto-Union, the 16-cylinder rear-engined racing car that won races on all of Europe's race tracks from 1934 to 1937 and set numerous world records under Stuck and Rosemeyer.

Incidentally, Porsche was already tempted to give up his independence in 1932. He accepted an invitation to Russia and made an extensive information trip through the centers of the Soviet vehicle industry at the time. He was able to visit all the factories that interested him, and was shown all the designs in the vehicle, aircraft and tractor sectors. No other European has ever had such an insight into Russian industry as Ferdinand Porsche did. At the end of this trip, the Russians in Moscow offered him the job of head designer. This was to come with a wealth of powers and amenities. He was to bring his family with him to Russia, and his every wish was to be fulfilled, but Ferdinand Porsche refused. The language barrier in particular put him off, as his son Ferry, today's Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Porsche AG, recalls.

Also in 1932, Porsche developed a new spring element in his design office that is now common knowledge among car manufacturers: the torsion bar. A well-known trade journalist once said that this invention alone would have been enough to make the name Porsche a monument in the world of automobiles. The Porsche torsion bar patents have actually been used all over the world.

Content

• The beginning
• The Volkswagen is created
• The 356 makes progress
• At Le Mans for 30 years
• The new Porsche generation