Page 10 - Porsche Decades sample pages

for the first time in 1933, living in France and Switzerland. Persecuted for being Jewish, he was forced to leave Germany for good after being imprisoned in a concentration camp in 1935. He represented Porsche in France and England until 1938 before moving to America and changing his name to Alan Arthur Robert. The value of his 10% stake in the original Porsche design company became a controversial restitution issue after World War II.
Dr. Porsche’s son-in-law, Anton Piëch, handled the company’s legal affairs. Piëch and Rosenberger recruited the Austrian enthusiast and racer Hans von Veyder-Malberg to take over Rosenberger’s role as commercial director and to (nominally) buy out Rosenberger’s share in Porsche in January 1933. The actual disposition of those shares became part of the post-war controversy. Importantly, in 2022 Porsche AG announced funding and cooperation for an independent study, in conjunction with the non-profit Adolf Rosenberger company, meant to achieve a more complete understanding of Rosenberger’s life, role with Porsche, and post-1933 relationship with Porsche.
The design office was located at Kronenstrasse 24 starting on December 1, 1930. The initial name was Dr. ing. h.c. Ferdinand Porsche GmbH, Konstruktionsbüro für Motoren und Fahrzeugbau. The
Business card for Porsche circa 1931.
first part stands for ‘Doctor Engineer honoris causa’ referring to FerdinandPorsche’shonorarydegrees.GmbHistheabbreviation for ‘Gesellschaft mit Beschrankter Haftung’. This translates to ‘limited liability company’. The final part translates to ‘design office for engine and motor vehicle construction’. An alternate variation of the name adds Luftfahrzeug und Wasserfahrzeug, or ‘aircraft and watercraft’. The formal registration documents for the Porsche company were completed on April 25, 1931.
The first car designed by Porsche was a new medium-size vehicle for Wanderer (the W21/22). It was powered by a Porsche- designed inline six-cylinder engine eventually available in two sizes. The design work initiated Porsche’s sequential ‘Type’ or project numbering system. The ledger was famously started with the Wanderer project as design number 7. The generally- accepted story is that the Porsche team did not want their client to think that they had done no previous work, so numbers 1 through 6 were left vacant. The numbering system would eventually yield many famous Porsche model numbers starting with the 356. The Wanderer design was completed very quickly, and prototypes were running as early as the summer of 1931. However, the struggle to maintain financial stability (and simply pay the employees) when working on a project-to-project basis was a constant worry for Porsche in the first few years of the company.
Wanderer W22, design Type 7, in the Porsche Museum.
PORSCHE POINTS
tIn 1931, Mercedes-Benz became the first German car to win Italy’s great road race, the Mille Miglia. Rudolf Caracciola won in an SSKL, the basic design having originated during Dr. Porsche’s tenure.
tThe second design from the original Porsche team, under Type numbers 8 and 9, was a larger, more luxurious car for Wanderer. Two prototypes were built before Wanderer merged into Auto Union where Horch was assigned to build the larger cars. Dr. Porsche kept the supercharged Type 9 prototype as his personal car for several years during the 1930s.
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1930s PORSCHE DECADES