--- title: Ferdinand Alexander Porsche · HICONIUM description: Ferdinand Alexander Porsche in the HICONIUM register — one file carrying their credit. canonical_url: https://hiconium.dev/people/ferdinand-alexander-porsche image: https://hiconium.dev/og/people/ferdinand-alexander-porsche.png --- > HICONIUM · Index: https://hiconium.dev/llms.txt · Every page: append `.md` or send `Accept: text/markdown`. > Path: [Home](https://hiconium.dev/) › [People](https://hiconium.dev/people) › Ferdinand Alexander Porsche > On this page: [Flattened 911 nose](#flattened-911-nose) · [Glass-fibre racing body](#glass-fibre-racing-body) · [One file carries this name](#one-file-carries-this-name) ![Portrait photograph of Ferdinand Alexander Porsche.](https://hiconium.dev/_derived/images/people/ferdinand-alexander-porsche/portrait.jpg.w1920.q75.webp) People # Ferdinand Alexander Porsche Porsche designer and co-founder of Porsche Design; designer of the 904 Carrera GTS | Label | Value | | --- | --- | | Born | Stuttgart, Germany, 1935 | | Died | Salzburg, Austria, 2012 | | Nationality | German | Wikimedia Commons The record German industrial designer associated with Porsche’s design department from the late 1950s and founder of Porsche Design. Porsche credits him with the Type 754 T7 study, the 901 that became the 911, and the 904 Carrera GTS — the first Porsche with a glass-fibre-reinforced plastic body. Ferdinand Alexander Porsche was born in Stuttgart on 11 December 1935, the eldest son of Dorothea and Ferry Porsche. The family and Porsche company moved to Austria in 1943, and he attended school in Zell am See. After the 1950 return to Stuttgart, he finished school at the Waldorf School, studied at Ulm for two semesters, and began a Porsche modelling-department internship in 1957. He joined the company as a designer in 1958. In 1959 he modelled a coupé that Porsche said first came close to Ferry’s idea of a 356 successor. The Type 754 T7 four-seater of 1960 showed the flattened bonnet between free-standing wings; Ferry insisted on a fastback and cut the wheelbase from 2.40 metres to 2.20. Porsche’s later accounts disagree on the first year of his leadership: the company’s 2025 biographies place him in charge of a new design department by 1961, whereas Porsche-derived notices from 2010 and 2012 say 1962. In 1963, the Type 901, the six-cylinder successor to the 356, appeared at the Frankfurt IAA on 12 September. It became the 911 after Peugeot asserted rights to three-digit model names with a zero in the middle; Ferry ordered the change on 22 October 1964. The 904 Carrera GTS is directly credited to F. A. Porsche by the Porsche Museum. It was the first Porsche with a glass-fibre-reinforced plastic body, created in collaboration with Heinkel Flugzeugbau, and had a frontal area of 1.4 square metres. It premiered at Solitude in Stuttgart on 26 November 1963. At the 1964 Targa Florio, Antonio Pucci and Colin Davis won overall in a four-cylinder 904; Edgar Barth and Umberto Maglioli won the prototype class in an eight-cylinder 904. When Porsche KG became an AG in 1971/72, family members left operational posts. He kept a Supervisory Board seat but had to give up the design chair. In 1972 he and Hans-Peter founded Porsche Design in Stuttgart; the studio moved to Zell am See in 1974. He chaired the Supervisory Board from 1990 to 1993 and in 2005 handed his seat to his son Oliver, becoming Honorary President. He died in Salzburg on 5 April 2012. ### Flattened 911 nose On the Type 754 T7 of 1960 he set the flattened bonnet between free-standing wings and the inclined headlights that the 901 and 911 kept. Porsche later treated that study as the form that first matched Ferry’s idea of a 356 successor. ### Glass-fibre racing body The 904 was the first Porsche with a glass-fibre-reinforced plastic body, produced with the aircraft firm Heinkel Flugzeugbau and given a frontal area of 1.4 square metres. The Porsche Museum credits the design to F. A. Porsche. The stations 1. 1957–1961 Porsche Modelling-department intern; later designer 2. 1961–1972 Porsche Head of the design department 3. 1972–2005 Porsche AG Member of the Supervisory Board 4. 1972–2004 Porsche Design Founder and studio head, with Hans-Peter Porsche 5. 1990–1993 Porsche AG Chairman of the Supervisory Board 6. 2005–2012 Porsche AG Honorary President of the Supervisory Board The house [![Porsche](https://hiconium.dev/images/marques/full/porsche.svg)](https://hiconium.dev/manufacturers/porsche) Credited through Porsche. In the register ## One file carries this name - [Porsche 904 Carrera GTS Designer · Porsche Porsche’s museum credits him with the 904’s design: a mid-engine coupé whose glass-fibre-reinforced plastic body, made with Heinkel Flugzeugbau, was the first such shell on a Porsche and was given a frontal area of 1.4 square metres. 1964 €2.4M 1964 €2.4M Rating 92.0](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/904-carrera-gts) The files above are the register's own record of this name. [The people index](https://hiconium.dev/people) holds everyone the register credits. In their words > “If you rethink the function of something, the form sometimes emerges almost by itself” Ferdinand Alexander Porsche · Porsche Newsroom, 11 December 2025 Sources - [newsroom.porsche.com](https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2025/history/porsche-ferdinand-alexander-90-years-41290.html) - [press.porsche-design.com](https://press.porsche-design.com/en/heritage) - [newsroom.porsche.com](https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/press-kits/Porsche-Museum/Porsche-904-Carrera-GTS.html) - [newsroom.porsche.com](https://newsroom.porsche.com/en_US/2025/products/porsche-911-gt3-90-f-a-porsche-sonderwunsch-41339.html) - [newsroom.porsche.com](https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/history/porsche-history-super-sportscars-10112.html) - [newsroom.porsche.com](https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/history/porsche-911-evolutionary-history-754-901-ferry-porsche-14641.html) - [newsroom.porsche.com](https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/christophorus/porsche-christophorus-philosophy-ferdinand-alexander-porsche-design-studio-13439.html) - [24h-lemans.com](https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/ferdinand-alexander-porsche-celebrates-his-75th-birthday-2540) - [24h-lemans.com](https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/ferdinand-alexander-butzi-porsche-1935-2012-6712) - [auto-medienportal.net](https://www.auto-medienportal.net/artikel/detail/7284) - [spiegel.de](https://www.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/nachruf-auf-den-designer-des-911-ferdinand-butzi-alexander-porsche-a-826082.html) - [theguardian.com](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/apr/05/ferdinand-porsche-911-model-dies) - [theguardian.com](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/apr/08/ferdinand-porsche) - [porscheholding-newsroom.at](https://www.porscheholding-newsroom.at/pressemeldungen/detail/2022-04-25-gts-drei-buchstaben-als-synonym-fuer-emotion-und-sportlichkeit) - [munzinger.de](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/Ferdinand%2BAlexander%2BPorsche/00/28558) - [deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de](https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/person/gnd/121886387) - [ausmotive.com](https://www.ausmotive.com/2012/04/06/ferdinand-alexander-porsche-1935-2012.html) - [studiofaporsche.com](https://www.studiofaporsche.com/en/studio-en/)