Ferdinand Porsche's life story has come to be totally dominated by the Volkswagen, the rear-engined German people's car. The Volkswagen is rightly a legendary vehicle, but the controversies that attach to that project and the car itself, do Porsche a great disservice. The Volkswagen was simply one of a series of vehicles he designed. It's not even the most interesting! Porsche's pre-Volkswagen career is extremely interesting. He started as a metalworker in his father's workshop, then became an itinerate tradesman, became an electrical apprentice, then electrical engineer, designed an electric vehicle motor, designed and patented the electric wheel-hub motor for the Lohner carriage company, designed military trucks and diesel-electric road trains for the Austro-Hungarian army, designed Austro-Daimler's first aero engine (that went on to become the model for Daimler-Benz and BMW aero engines in the First and Second World War), became Austro-Daimler's technical director of vehicle development, designed, built and drove racecars for Daimler, promoted the development of a motorcar (at Austro-Daimler, Steyr and Daimler-Benz), designed the four and six cylinder engines used by Wanderer, worked on mid-engined racecars for Benz and Auto-Union, designed a three-wheeled delivery van for Zundapp, designed the Volkswagen and its predecessors, developed a 'people's tractor' and designed heavy tanks for the Wehrmacht. Most people don't know any of this. When you understand the full scope of his career, the fairy tales that accuse him of plagarism (of Ledwinka's or Ganz' designs) are easy to dismiss as the nonsense they are.
B-Sport channel on YouTube have done a magnificently detailed review of Ferdinand Porsche's career, from his early years in his father's metalwork shop. B-Sport have many other histories and biographies on their channel that are well worth watching. I highly recomment their content.
Porsche's early life
Revolutionary Designs at Lohner
Porsche at Austro-Daimler
More videos to follow. Subscribe to B-Sport for more content
The origin of the Volkswagen: http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/volkswagen-world-beating-peoples-car.html
Volkswagen at War: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2014/07/volkswagen-at-war.html
The Death and Resurrection of Volkswagen: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-death-and-resurrection-of-volkswagen.html
The Tatra-Volkswagen lawsuit: https://tatrat600.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-tatra-versus-volkswagen-lawsuit.html
