70 Years of Porsche factory collection

If you click through the new car configurator on the Porsche website, shortly before the virtual car is finished you will come to a point that many German car manufacturers offer: factory collection. At Porsche, this is possible either at the main plant in Stuttgart Zuffenhausen or at the branch plant in Leipzig. What has become a matter of course service for many customers today has a long tradition. This tradition began 70 years ago. Porsche had returned to Stuttgart from Gmünd, Austria, at the end of 1949 and had set up the new production facility for the 356 in halls next to the Reutter body construction company. In addition, there were departments for repairs, development and construction. On Maundy Thursday in 1950, the first 356 from Stuttgart rolled into the open air. A little later, on 26 May, the first factory collection by Dr. Ottomar Domnick finally took place.

One of the first apprentices of the company in 1943 was Herbert Linge, who appears twice in our picture gallery and who is still happy to report on the early days of the company today. He went to Gmünd during the war and returned to Zuffenhausen as one of the first employees to make preparations for the start of series production of the company’s own sports car. “I started at the age of 14 in Porsche’s first training workshop. At that time, we were six mechanics and two technical draftsmen. Ferdinand Porsche often walked past our workshop with important guests. Each time he kept his guests waiting briefly and greeted us. I will never forget that,” said Linge, who still remembers every factory collection. “Domnick really celebrated the handover of his Porsche 356. But he came by every day before that anyway, to see how far we had come with the work. Ferry Porsche also stopped by briefly when the doctor picked up his sports car.”

Dr. Domnick was a 43-year-old specialist in neurology and psychiatry, who had very much wanted to be the very first German Porsche customer. His contract of sale, which he had concluded on 19 November 1949 with Hahn Motorfahrzeuge GmbH in Stuttgart for a 356 Coupé in the color ‘Fischsilber’ (fish silver), went into Porsche’s order books with the commission number 5001. The order form bears a Volkswagen logo crossed out by hand, as there was no distribution network for Porsche at that time. Before Dr. Domnick took over the car, Herbert Linge invited him to join him on the final acceptance drive, which he enjoyed from the passenger seat. Afterwards he poured champagne for the Porsche employees involved and was visibly pleased with his new sports car.

Today, Tobias Donnevert heads the Factory Collection and Sales Operations Individualisation departments in Zuffenhausen. Together with his team, he welcomes up to 20 customers per day to the factory collection service, in 2019 a total of around 2,500. At the same time, there were even almost 3,000 customers in Leipzig last year. As 70 years ago, the vehicles are ordered from the local dealer or alternatively from the experts at Porsche Exclusive in Zuffenhausen. On the day of pickup, a guided tour of the production facility is available on request, as well as a tour of the Porsche Museum at the main plant. In Leipzig, on the other hand, you can do a few laps of the FIA-certified race and test track. Afterwards, the customer is taken to a well-lit room, where he can take a first look at his new sports car, which until then was only known to him or her as a virtual picture or by color plates. “This moment belongs to the customer alone,” explains Tobias Donnevert. In the anniversary year for Porsche 2019, the first delivery of an electric Taycan to a customer in Germany took place.

Images: Porsche, Sammlung Domnick