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.^[3]

Ferdinand Porsche
Born	(1875-09-03)3 September 1875 Maffersdorf, Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (current Vratislavice nad Nisou, Czech Republic[1])
Died	30 January 1951(1951-01-30) (aged 75) Stuttgart, West Germany[2]
Citizenship	Austria-Hungary (birth–1918), Czechoslovakia (1918–1934), Germany (1934–death)
Known for	starting Porsche, Volkswagen
Children	Ferry Porsche and Louisa Porsche

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.^[3] It continues to produce high power cars to this day.