The Porsche Museum

Part of the reason we are flying to Istanbul via Stuttgart (other than the fact that it saves us money) is because Paul actually wanted to go to Stuttgart because it’s where the automobile was invented and Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, and Porsche are all still produced in Stuttgart or nearby towns, and each has a museum you can visit.  Since we woke up late, we decided to just go to the Porsche museum today, and save the larger Mercedes-Benz Museum for tomorrow, when we will force ourselves to get up on time…

In addition to heading out the door late, we ran into some difficulty when trying to buy a public transit pass.  Paul had read online that there is a €13.90 three day tourist card, which allows you unlimited travel in all zones for three consecutive days, but we couldn’t find this ticket on the self-serve machines at the S-Bahn station.  We went to ask at the ticket office and had to wait 20 minutes for the only rep that spoke English to finish with the girl she was helping, only to find out that they don’t sell this type of ticket, you can only buy it at the tourist information office at the main train station or at the airport!  Since it was such a big savings (€13.90 for three days vs. €15 for one day), we walked to the tourist information office, which was about 1.5km away, and bought transit passes there before heading to the Porsche museum.

The current Porsche museum is a beautiful modern facility that was just opened in January of this year, at the Porsche headquarters in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen.  It was a bit smaller than I had expected (5600 square meters of exhibition space spread over 2 floors), but they’ve created a nice looking display and the info in the exhibits was interesting and well written.  My only complaint is that it was a bit confusing since the escalator takes you to the middle and you’re not sure whether you should go forwards, backwards, left, or right.  It took me a couple turns to get oriented, but I discovered that going forwards is best if you want to go through the exhibit in chronological order, starting with how Ferdinand Porsche began as an electrical engineer, became technical director at Austro-Daimler, and then founded his own design office and designed the Volkswagen Beetle, the first “German People’s Car.” 

The rest of the floor features about 80 “icon” cars (in chronological order going counter-clockwise), small exhibits related to the technical achievements of Ferdinand Porsche, and a bit about his son, Ferry Porsche.  Going up the ramp to the smaller second floor, you arrive at a larger exhibit dedicated to “100 years of Ferry Porsche”  and learn how Ferry Porsche transformed the company his father founded into the car manufacturer we know today.  As I put together information to write this blog, I find it interesting that, apart from a mention that Ferry Porsche assumed responsibility for the company when his father was taken into custody by the French in 1946, there is no acknowledgement of the ugly part of the company’s past – their involvement with the Nazis.  It was with the Nazi party’s help that the Volkswagen Beetle went into production, and Ferdinand Porsche’s arrest was actually for his involvment in war crimes, but there is no mention of this anywhere in the museum.  Although he was found not guilty, it would still be nice if they acknowledged the company’s involvement, because they definately were tied with the Nazi party in some way.

At the end of the day, my Porsche museum experience has enlightened me about the brand and the men behind its name.  Nothing they produce will ever be my dream car, but knowing the history of the company, I can see why they are some people’s dream car.  Racing legacy just isn’t my thing