Behind the merger of Volkswagen and Porsche
The continuous interactions between these corporations drew a lot of attention from the whole world, because one of them, Volkswagen is one of the most powerful commercial vehicle producers in the world, and the other, Porsche is worldwide famous for its super cool racing cars and also sport-utility vehicles. What is more interesting and important is that these two corporations share the same origin on the level of relations of the share holders and officers.
To trace the origin of Volkswagen and Porsche, we have to go back over more than half a century to 1931 when Ferdinand Porsche, the ancestor of both companies, left Mercedes Benz and got his own Porsche Design House. Supported by Adolf Hitler, Ferdinand Porsche built up the first Volkswagen workshop in Niedersachsen in 1938 to produce the famous Beetles that was designed by himself and wage-earners could afford to buy. After the World War Ⅱ, Volkswagen was delivered to German Federal Government by British Army, becoming a nationalized business. It turned to be Volkswagen Corporation in 1960, with the largest share holder being the Federal Government but then the government of Niedersachsen.
The Porsche Business was built up in 1949 by Ferdinand Porsche’s son named Ferry Porsche who produced the first remarkable Porsche racing car in 1948, with components provided by Volkswagen. It turned to be Porsche Corporation at the same time when Volkswagen made the same move in 1960.
However, these two firms were not owned by the same person when Ferdinand Porsche passed away, because he did not left all of his wealth to a single person, but separately to his son Ferry Porsche who owned the Porsche business, and his daughter Louise Porsche who owned the Volkswagen business. On the other hand, Volkswagen and Porsche chose different ways after the World War Ⅱ. Volkswagen followed his original purpose to particularly produce Beetles that have satisfactory quality but...