Ferdinand Porsche, this is how Christiana Ruggeri talks about the genius who changed the automobile

From his birth in 1875 in Maffersdorf, Bohemia, until his death from a heart attack in 1951, marked by suffering for 20 months of imprisonment for collaborationism, Porsche was followed in a series of agile chapters that highlight his tenacious character, as a dreamer fascinated by the development of a sector – the automotive sector – which promised, as it would, to change the society of the 20th century. Thus it turns out – in Christiana Ruggeri’s story – that Porsche (a name that for decades has been associated with the idea of ​​roaring petrol engines) came to light in Germany in 1899 with the P1, a 100% electric car, as we would say today, winner of one of the first races in Berlin with an 18 minute advantage over the second. Porsche studied motors integrated into the wheel hubs and regenerative braking systems, technologies now available on highly advanced cars. In the following decades, Porsche’s projects grew in quality and ambition: from the 35 km/h of the P1 in the 1930s it reached the 400 km/h of the Auto Union P-Wagen single-seater, the result of an unstoppable passion.

Ma his name will however remain in history for the most ‘simple’ and ingenious of his creations: the People’s Car, the Volks Wagenproposed in 1934 to a Hitler eager to motorize the Reich. A technical but also financial gamble won (but to an extent that Porsche would not have been able to see) which however brought him dangerously close to the regime, even without any formal adhesion on the part of the Bohemian entrepreneur. Enough, however, to have him interned – after the war – by the French who wanted to rebuild their car industry based on Porsche’s beliefs, lightness, technical refinement, accessibility to the general public. There is a lot to tell in the story of this automotive visionary (also in his relationship with Italy, before and after the world war) and Christiana Ruggeri does it with a light, fast hand, clearly in love with ‘her’ dreamer who changed the world.