Recently, I was driving up through Austria on my way to Salzburg and noticed a sign to a Porsche Museum in the country town of Gmund. I knew that Gmund was the birthplace of the first cars bearing Porsche branding, so was intrigued as to what I might find.
It was during the mid to late 1940’s, Ferry Porsche (jnr) designed and began production of the 356 in an old sawmill in Gmund. This site was chosen in 1944 as a safe location away from the WWII bombing raids on Stuttgart. Early in the 1950’s, Porsche moved production from Gmund back to the production facilities in Zuffenhausen, an industrial suburb of Stuttgart, Germany.
Surprisingly the old wooden Gmund factory still stands, and is only marked by a small sign on the side door… an easy place to miss if you weren’t looking for it. It is as small as it looks, and it is amazing to think that up to 300 people worked there in it’s heyday!
Approximately 2km down the road from the factory is a private Porsche Museum housing the prized collection of a local Porsche enthusiast Helmut Pfeifhofer. The museum provides a detailed overview of the history and production within the Gmund factory, as well as showing a collection of both early and modern cars, tractors and other equipment Porsche produced during this era. Unfortunately, I had to skip the detailed history lesson as it’s all in German and one semester of Year 7 German 30 years ago didn’t quite cut it.
Both the old factory and the Porsche Museum are worth a look if you’re in the vicinity and a Porsche buff… It’s something a little different to the standard Stuttgart Porsche experience, plus Gmund itself is a very picturesque town.
By Tim Rout