History of Porsche

Porsche Automobil Holding SE is a German automobile manufacturer, which was founded in 1948. The history of Porsche dates back to its founder and avid car enthusiast Ferdinand Porsche, who was a well-known figure in the European automobile industry. Ferdinand was well respected throughout Germany and was commissioned by the German Government, under Adolf Hitler to design an affordable, family car for the Germany people. He worked with fellow automaker, Volkswagen to form the Volkswagen Beetle, which is one of the most successful car designs of all time.

During the Second World War, Ferdinand continued to work in partnership with Volkswagen, and both were heavily involved in the process of designing and manufacturing tanks for the German war effort, most notably the infamous Tiger Tank. In 1945, the British occupation took over Volkswagen and Mr Ferdinand, who was a senior manager was removed from his post and later arrested for war crimes. He wassent to jail in France for 20 months. Ferdinand’s son, Ferry Porsche took over the company and would successfully prevent the company from entering bankruptcy.

The first car to bear the Porsche name was the 356 model in 1948, which would be the company's founding year. The 356 was also actually built in Austria. In 1953, the 550 Spyder model was introduced to compete against the likes of Ferrari, Jaguar, Maserati and Aston Martin. In 1956, the company built its 10,000^th car, which was amazing considering the company was only eight years old. This was increased to one million in 1996.

However it was not until 12 years after his father’s death, when Ferry Porsche would introduce the, well known, successful 911 model in 1964.The company logo of Porsche is based on the coat of arms of the Free People’s State of Wurttemberg, which is part of the Stuttgart region.