Ferry Porsche

The first units were manufactured in 1962. However, Peugeot pushed legally for a change of the name, due to its registered trademark on automobile names with a zero amid two numbers. The model was renamed Porsche 911. Over time, it has evolved, but still kept the general shape and architecture since the beginning with a rear-mounted high-performance engine. On 11 May 2017, the millionth example was built.

Additionally, Ferdinand Porsche stepped down from the chairmanship and became honorary chairman of the supervisory board. In fact, he continued controlling the company as such. He remained in that position until his death In 1998. Ferdinand Alexander Porsche took his place as general manager.

Ferdinand Porsche died 74 days short of the 50th anniversary of the company, at the age of 88, on 27 March 1998, at the farm in Zell am See, Austria. He was buried there at the Schüttgut church, beside his parents, his wife Dorothea and Anton Piëch. Porsche AG conducted a memorial service soon after in Stuttgart.

In 1989, Ferdinand Porsche retired definitively from involvement with the company he created, returning to his cherished Austrian farm at Zell am See.

Despite its compact size, the car was popular with wealthy customers. If successful, the 356 would mean Porsche's final hop out from performing only designing chores for others. Indeed, surprisingly, the 356 remained in production for many years and by 1965 had sold nearly 78,000 units. Additionally, it laid the framework which was followed by the entirety of the successive series of Porsche's sports cars.

The senior Ferdinand Porsche was rather sick. Noting this, sentimentally, Ferry took him to revisit Wolfsburg's plant which was flourishing with the massive production of the Volkswagen Beetle—which was carried out under supervision of the British occupation. In November 1950, senior Ferdinand Porsche suffered a stroke which disabled him until his death, on 30 January 1951, aged 75.

Porsche's most recognized involvement in car races began at 24 Hours of Le Mans, on June 1951, when an improved version of the 356 debuted on this track and won in its category. On successive years, Porsche's winning contribution to Le Mans is regarded as fundamental for the own existence of the circuit. Later, in 1959, Porsche won for first time an event of the World Sportscar Championship, at Targa Florio, while a Porsche 917 would achieve the first Le Mans win finally in 1970.

Following his father's death in 1951, Ferry Porsche was the most responsible official of the company, as general manager, the chairman of the board of management. In 1972, he decided to transform the Porsche Company (which was a limited partnership) into a public concern, also by merging all the three enterprises which constituted it:

In 1950, the production of the Porsche 356 resumed. Eventually, it was so successful that, despite being originally planned an annual production of 500, they had already produced 78,000 units by 1967. Ferdinand Porsche's motto was to produce automobiles which had to be reliable and of high-quality sports cars, of a high utilitarian value.

In the spring of 1949, the general manager of Volkswagen, Heinz Nordhoff, approached junior Ferdinand Porsche and unpacked a massive contract. For Porsche's designing services—for example, improving the Beetle--, it specified that Volkswagen would start providing in exchange:

In view of this new stabilized situation, junior Ferdinand Porsche decided to reestablish the headquarters of the Porsche at Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. Though, the old original Porsche's facilities were occupied by American forces. Nonetheless, he rented some workshops then from the company Reutter (which was a constructor of bodies for automobiles). He brought most of his employees and opened on September 1949. Their first work was the development of an engine which was called Carrera.

By June 1948, 50 aluminum-bodied units had been completely assembled. Additionally, 6 frameworks were sent to the Beutler Company at Thun, Switzerland, where they were fitted with cabriolet bodies.

An automobile dealer from Zurich ordered the first shipment in the winter of 1947 and production of the automobile began. Under Ferry Porsche's supervision, the units were built completely by hand at an improvised workshop inside a sawmill at Gmünd.

In 1947, the junior Ferdinand Porsche gathered the amount of the stipulated bail, immediately after receiving the early fees for his new designs. His father was then released on 1 August 1947, along with Anton Piëch.

A group of French producers, led by Jean Pierre Peugeot, resisted this. During an official appointment at Wolfsburg, both Porsches, father and son, as well as Anton Piëch, a Viennese attorney who was Louise Porsche's husband, were arrested together as criminals of war, on December 15. Without any trial, a bail of 500,000 francs was officially asked for each of the Porsche's. It could be afforded only for Ferry Porsche who moved then to Austria, in July 1946. His father was taken instead to prison at Dijon.

After his release, Ferry Porsche attempted to return to Stuttgart but he was barred by the occupation forces. In consequence, in July 1946 he brought all the structure of the company to Gmünd/Carinthia, Austria.

Though, after the end of WWII, the French government requested formally that the Porsche family build a French version of the compact Volkswagen, in November 1945.

In 1939, when the Volkswagen factory opened in Wolfsburg, Porsche senior became its general manager. (along with an officer from the Nazi party).

In 1938, when his father moved to the new Volkswagen plant at Wolfsburg, Ferry became deputy manager of the Stuttgart bureau and relocated the design departments to Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen.

Porsche volunteered to join the SS on December 17, 1938, later claiming, falsely, that he had been conscripted by Himmler to design the Schwimmwagen. He would continue to deny having volunteered until his death. To avoid the aerial bombings of Stuttgart, Ferry Porsche was forced to bring some of the design departments to Austria, to two locations, Gmünd/Carinthia and Zell am See, where the family had a farm. Nonetheless, he stayed personally in Stuttgart, managing the business where factories were staffed with coerced labor.

Ferry Porsche, at the time, managed a group of departments ranging from design to customer relationship management. They were: "controlling of testing", "coordinating of the design engineers", and "keeping good relations with clients". In 1935, Ferry married Dorothea Reitz, whom he had first met in the corridors of Daimler-Benz, years before. The couple had four children: Ferdinand Alexander (born 1935), Gerhard (born 1938), Hans-Peter (born 1940), and Wolfgang (born 1943), and remained married until her death.

Nonetheless, the German government accepted the project on 22 June 1934, interested in producing "an affordable car for the German family". Originally, it was called Porsche (Model) 60 but it was soon officially renamed as the KdF-Wagen or Volkswagen (people's car).

In 1934, Wanderer and others merged to form Auto Union, and the senior Porsche became the chief designer of their race cars. Both racing teams, Daimler-Benz and Auto Union, were also used for political propaganda by the National Socialists. They overwhelmingly dominated all the competitions of the 1930s. In 1938, Ferdinand Porsche senior left the Auto Union racing team when his contract expired.

Nevertheless, Porsche soon obtained contracts from important German automotive firms, such as Wanderer, Auto Union, Zwickau, Zündapp and, starting in 1933, the new German National Socialist regime. Some of these projects had historical impact, such as the mid-engine Auto Union Silver Arrow race cars, designed by Porsche.

In 1932, Ferdinand Porsche met with Adolf Hitler personally and their bid was accepted. Ferry Porsche took part in the conception and construction of those race cars, and was also responsible for the general organization of the workshop and the testing of units. In 1933, their first race car was developed with a 4.5 litre V-16 engine and an aluminum framework.

Ferry Porsche's life was intimately connected with that of his father, Ferdinand Porsche Sr., who began sharing his knowledge of mechanical engineering already in his childhood. With his father he opened a bureau of automobile design, in Stuttgart in 1931.

During the 1930s, Stuttgart had already established itself as a center for the automobile industry. Germany's most important car companies had settled in the region by then. It was thus an ideal location for the new Porsche design company. When Porsche senior opened his offices in April 1931, his son Ferry (then age 21) was by his side. The firm was called "Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH Konstructionsbüro für Motoren, Fahrzeuge, Luftfahrzeuge und Wasserfahrzeugbau", meaning that Ferdinand Porsche's firm specialized in construction and consultation for engines, automobiles, airplanes, and motorboats. Porsche GmbH was founded in 1931 by Adolf Rosenberger, Ferdinand Porsche and Dr. Anton Piëch. While Rosenberger was the financial backer, he also brought technical knowledge and racing skill to the equation. Father and son were accompanied by renowned engineers.

During the early 1930s, Germany's economic crisis was at its peak. The country was on the verge of political succession by the National Socialists. In addition to the financial and political crises, Porsche also faced a lack in personnel, altogether greatly limiting the company's prospects initially.

So, in 1929, Daimler-Benz began to question Porsche's work seriously and halted it suddenly. He worked temporarily as the technical director of Steyr AG in Austria; nonetheless, he soon decided to open a consulting office of automobile design, again at Stuttgart.

At the same time, after finishing school, Ferry Porsche was residing at Stuttgart where he began working for Bosch Company in 1928; this was to add depth to his interest in automobile engineering. In 1930, he was taking additional lessons in physics and engineering, however he never formally enrolled in any university.

In 1923, the family moved to Stuttgart, due to senior Ferdinand Porsche's unrest about the squandering financial destiny of Austro-Daimler. He joined the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft at Stuttgart-Untertürkheim (where the design department from the whole company was concentrated). Soon, he achieved the position of technical director.

Ferry remarked later, "...cars were my greatest passion from the very beginning.". For example, on Christmas Eve of 1920, Ferry Porsche was originally misled by his parents, who first presented him with a miniature coach pulled by a goat, while his real present was a petrol-driven miniature car with a four-stroke, two-cylinder engine specially designed by his father. Ferry Porsche learned to drive when he was only 10 years old. At age 12 he drove a real race car, the Austro-Daimler Sascha, which had just won its class at Targa Florio, Sicily, in 1922.

Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche (19 September 1909 – 27 March 1998), mainly known as Ferry Porsche, was an Austrian-German technical automobile designer and automaker-entrepreneur. He operated Porsche AG in Stuttgart, Germany. His father, Ferdinand Porsche Sr. was also a renowned automobile engineer and founder of Volkswagen and Porsche. His nephew, Ferdinand Piëch, was the longtime chairman of Volkswagen Group, and his son, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, was involved in the design of the 911.