150 years of Porsche
09/03/2025
150 years ago today, on September 3, 1875, Ferdinand Porsche was born in Maffersdorf in Bohemia (Austria-Hungary). He spent his childhood in the same house that housed his father's plumbing workshop.
In 1975, on the 100th anniversary of Ferdinand Porsche's birth, Wolf Strache and Halwart Schrader published a 212-page anniversary book entitled "100 (Hundred) Years of Porsche in the Mirror of Contemporary History".
The book also included a photo of the birthplace in 1888, in which little Ferdinand can be seen with his siblings in the foreground.
When this book was published, the then still young Martin Schröder had just a few vacation days left and used them to travel to the CSSR. The photo of the building above was taken during this visit in 1975.
When Schröder looked in the guest book at the time, he saw that Porsche 928 designer Anatole "Tony" Lapine had been there just a few days before him and had signed it.
To explain the captions on Martin Schröder's picture above: "Autoopravna" stands for car repair shop, "Vrelé pozdravy" on the far left ... Heartfelt greetings from the Soviet Army, our liberator!" Times have changed.
Today, the house where Porsche was born has been renovated and is open to the public. The visit can easily be combined with a tour of the Skoda Museum in Mladá Boleslav.
