When was Porsche founded?

Porsche’s company history begins on 25 April 1931, when Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH was founded in Stuttgart as a design office. The first car to carry the Porsche name, a 356 Roadster with chassis number 356-001, followed on 8 June 1948.

How many forced labourers did Porsche employ?

More than 400, according to the 2017 study by Wolfram Pyta as Porsche summarises it. Porsche AG says that Porsche KG, like most German companies in the Second World War, exploited foreign workers forced into service.

Is Porsche part of Volkswagen?

Yes. Porsche has operated within the Volkswagen Group since 1 August 2012. Porsche AG has also been listed on the stock exchange since it went public on 29 September 2022.

What is the difference between Porsche AG and Porsche SE?

Porsche AG is the sports car maker, a stock corporation since 1972. Porsche SE is a separate investment holding company with family ties; it holds the majority of Volkswagen AG’s ordinary shares and 25 percent plus one share of Porsche AG’s ordinary shares.

Otto Explains — Brand History

The History of Porsche

Short Answer

Porsche began on 25 April 1931, when Ferdinand Porsche, Anton Piëch and Adolf Rosenberger founded a design office in Stuttgart. Under National Socialism the office developed the Volkswagen and military vehicles and used forced labour, and its Jewish co-founder Rosenberger was forced to give up his shares. The first car to carry the Porsche name followed in 1948. Porsche has been part of the Volkswagen Group since 2012, and Porsche AG has been listed on the stock exchange since 2022.

Who was Ferdinand Porsche before Porsche?

Ferdinand Porsche (1875–1951) had a long career as a designer before he founded his own company. He began working on electric vehicles in 1898, and the Lohner-Porsche was shown at the 1900 Paris Exposition. He became technical director of Austro-Daimler in 1906 and of the Daimler motor company in Stuttgart in 1923, left in 1928, joined Steyr in 1929 and set up his own business in December 1930.

How did the Porsche company begin?

On 25 April 1931, during the global economic crisis, Ferdinand Porsche founded Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH in Stuttgart with his son-in-law Anton Piëch and the racing driver and entrepreneur Adolf Rosenberger. It was a design and consultancy office for engines and vehicles, with 12 staff at first, at Kronenstraße 24. In 1933 it won the contract to design a racing car for Auto Union, which secured its future. In May 1937 Ferry Porsche bought a plot at Spitalwaldstraße 2 in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen on the company’s behalf, and on 26 June 1938 the office moved into its own building there, the later Porsche Plant 1.

What was Porsche’s role in the Volkswagen project and the Nazi era?

On 17 January 1934 Ferdinand Porsche sent the Reich Ministry of Transport a memorandum on building a German “people’s car”. The project had the backing of the Nazi regime, and on 22 June 1934 the Reich automotive industry association (RDA) gave Porsche’s office a contract to develop prototypes. Porsche became one of the main directors of the company set up in 1937 to prepare the Volkswagen, and his office, renamed Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche KG that year, worked as an outsourced research and development department for Volkswagenwerk GmbH. Porsche AG itself says the office’s success was closely linked to the “Third Reich” and to Adolf Hitler himself. During the Second World War it developed military vehicles based on the Volkswagen, as well as tanks. The historian Wolfram Pyta, in a study Porsche supported, describes Ferdinand Porsche as a business owner who used the opportunities the regime offered out of economic interest rather than ideological conviction.

Did Porsche use forced labour during the war?

Yes. Porsche AG says that, like most German companies in the Second World War, Porsche KG exploited a workforce of foreign workers forced into service. According to Wolfram Pyta’s 2017 study, as Porsche summarises it, the company employed more than 400 forced labourers.

What happened to co-founder Adolf Rosenberger?

Adolf Rosenberger, a Jewish racing driver and entrepreneur, was the office’s commercial lead. He left the management in 1933, and in 1935 he had to hand his shares to Porsche at their nominal value and was temporarily imprisoned in the Kislau concentration camp. From Paris he handled Porsche’s patent and licence business until Porsche ended the collaboration at the end of 1937. In 1938 he was forced to emigrate to the United States, where he used the name Alan A. Robert, and he died in Los Angeles in 1967. In October 2022 Porsche and Rosenberger’s descendants jointly commissioned the historian Joachim Scholtyseck to study his life; Porsche funded the independent study, and its results were presented on 19 March 2026.

How has Porsche dealt with that history?

Porsche AG says it acknowledges the past of its predecessor companies and considers confronting that history an ongoing duty. In 1999 it joined the German industry foundation initiative and donated DM 5 million towards a fund for victims of forced labour, and it paid seven affected people DM 10,000 each. In 2014 it launched the research project that led to Wolfram Pyta’s 2017 book; afterwards a plaque for the forced labourers was put up at Plant 1 in Zuffenhausen, and the findings were added to the Porsche Museum’s permanent exhibition.

How did Porsche become a car maker?

Bombing raids on Stuttgart in 1944 led the management to move the design office to a former sawmill in Gmünd, in Carinthia, Austria. After the war Ferdinand Porsche was held in France. Porsche says he was not convicted as a war criminal; he was released on bail in July 1947 and formally acquitted in May 1948. In his absence his children, Ferry Porsche and Louise Piëch, ran the company. On 8 June 1948 the 356 Roadster with chassis number 356-001 became the first sports car to carry the Porsche name. In 1950 Porsche KG returned to Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen and began series production of the 356, and Ferdinand Porsche died in 1951. The 356’s successor appeared in 1963 as the 901 and was renamed 911 in 1964.

How did Porsche grow, and what crises did it face?

Cooperation with Volkswagen continued. The two companies agreed in 1966 to develop the car that became the VW-Porsche 914, sold from 1969 through VW-Porsche-Vertriebsgesellschaft, and the 924 began as a joint project that Volkswagen stopped in 1975 and handed to Porsche, which launched it in 1976. The family business became a stock corporation, Porsche AG, with effect from 1 August 1972: the Porsche and Piëch families withdrew from day-to-day management and acted through the Supervisory Board, which Ferry Porsche chaired. After the 1973 oil price shock Porsche cut daily production from 72 to 50 cars and introduced short-time working. In 1984 it issued preference shares, and Porsche Cars North America began selling its cars in the United States. The range then widened with the Cayenne, built in cooperation with Volkswagen at a new plant in Leipzig from 2002, the Panamera in 2009, the Macan in 2013 and the Taycan, the first all-electric Porsche, in 2019.

How did Porsche become part of the Volkswagen Group?

On 13 August 2009 Porsche SE and Volkswagen signed an agreement in principle to create an integrated automotive group. On 1 August 2012 Porsche SE contributed its holding business, including its 50.1 percent investment in Porsche’s operating business, to Volkswagen AG, which became sole owner of Porsche’s business operations. Porsche SE received about €4.46 billion and one Volkswagen ordinary share and kept 32.2 percent of Volkswagen AG’s capital. Porsche has operated within the Volkswagen Group since that date. On 29 September 2022 Porsche AG went public. Porsche SE, which describes itself as an investment holding company with family ties, today holds the majority of Volkswagen AG’s ordinary shares and 25 percent plus one share of Porsche AG’s ordinary shares.

Common Questions

When was Porsche founded? Porsche’s company history begins on 25 April 1931, when Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH was founded in Stuttgart as a design office. The first car to carry the Porsche name, a 356 Roadster with chassis number 356-001, followed on 8 June 1948.
Who founded Porsche? Ferdinand Porsche, together with his son-in-law Anton Piëch and Adolf Rosenberger, a Jewish racing driver and entrepreneur who left the management in 1933 and had to hand over his shares in 1935.
How many forced labourers did Porsche employ? More than 400, according to the 2017 study by Wolfram Pyta as Porsche summarises it. Porsche AG says that Porsche KG, like most German companies in the Second World War, exploited foreign workers forced into service.
Is Porsche part of Volkswagen? Yes. Porsche has operated within the Volkswagen Group since 1 August 2012. Porsche AG has also been listed on the stock exchange since it went public on 29 September 2022.
What is the difference between Porsche AG and Porsche SE? Porsche AG is the sports car maker, a stock corporation since 1972. Porsche SE is a separate investment holding company with family ties; it holds the majority of Volkswagen AG’s ordinary shares and 25 percent plus one share of Porsche AG’s ordinary shares.

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