Troubled times

Following the move to Gmünd in Austria in 1944 to seek sanctuary from the Allied air raids on Stuttgart, the staff of Porsche’s design bureau became used to living in relative comfort. Gmünd was in the heart of an agricultural belt, food was in plentiful supply and the Porsche family home at Zell-am-See comprised a huge farmhouse, capable of accommodating up to 25 people. All things considered, life was actually pretty good.

The drawing offices and workshops were located in a former sawmill, which was promptly nicknamed Vereinigte Hüttenwerke (associated iron and steel foundry) by the workers. The wooden buildings would have attracted little attention from the air. Indeed, it turned out later that the Allies knew nothing of their purpose until after the war.

Much of the work carried out at Gmünd related to the infamous V1 ‘flying bomb’ project, production of which took place at what we know today as Wolfsburg, home also of course to the KdF-Wagen assembly lines. But there was still time to pursue automotive-related matters, and to drive the wide variety of vehicles that were garaged in the various barns at Gmünd.

These included two of the