Ferdinand Porsche

Ferdinand Porsche (3 September 1875 – 30 January 1951) was born in Austria.  He was a talented and well-known car designer, especially of race cars.  But he always wanted to make a small car useful for a family.  Finally Adolf Hitler gave him the opportunity to make the Volkswagen Beetle in 1936. But by the time the car started production, war broke out, and the company started making army vehicles instead.  After World War II he was put in a French jail for almost 2 years but never convicted of a crime.  He was released, but his health had been damaged and he died not long afterwards.  He lived long enough to see his beloved small car being successfully produced by the Volkswagen company, but not to see the great success it eventually became.

He started the Porsche company in 1931.  At first it made designs and prototypes for others (including the Volkswagen Beetle).  Later, under his son Ferry Porsche's leadership, it started making high-end cars.  It continues to produce high power cars to this day.

 References 

Further reading
Barber, Chris (2003). Birth of the Beetle: The Development of the Volkswagen by Ferdinand Porsche. Haynes Publishing. .
 Ludvigsen, Karl E. (2008). Porsche: Excellence Was Expected – The Comprehensive History of the Company, Its Cars and Its Racing Heritage. Brooklands Books. 
 Hans Mommsen; Manfred Grieger: Das Volkswagenwerk und seine Arbeiter im Dritten Reich, ECON Verlag, Düsseldorf 1996,  
 Peter Müller: Ferdinand Porsche. Der Vater des Volkswagens, 4. Aufl., 1998 
 Martin Pfundner: Austro Daimler und Steyr. Rivalen bis zur Fusion. Die frühen Jahre des Ferdinand Porsche. Böhlau, Wien 2007.  

 Other websites 

 West Ham's Cedes Stoll Trolleybus  Porsche design
 Porsche facts website 
 Website of the Society of Automotive Historians about him 
 Hybrid-Vehicle.org: The Lohner-Porsche .
 Hybrid-Vehicle.org: The Landwehr and C-train 

Category:German businesspeople
Category:1875 births
Category:1951 deaths