The Historical Archive of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG has likewise relocated to the museum and is now housed directly above the museum workshop. As the Group’s “historical memory”, the Porsche archive collects all important information concerning business, technical, social or cultural matters relating to Porsche AG and its subsidiary companies. The archived items include anything worth saving about the unparalleled Porsche success story, from the beginnings of Ferdinand Porsche as an automobile designer to the engineering office established in 1931 all the way to today’s Porsche AG. The files of the Porsche Archive currently cover 2,000 metres of shelf space, including bookshelves, display cases, steel cabinets, and safes.
Accumulated knowledge available for specialists
The Historical Archive with its accumulated knowledge is available not only to internal departments but also to external users. By prior arrangement, specialists such as journalists, scientists and owners of classic Porsche cars can conduct research in the archive library, which has a reading room affording a view of the museum lobby.
As one of the most extensive image archives in the automotive industry, the Historical Archive contains over five million images, a media archive with over 1,700 hours of motion picture materials and a library with more than 3,000 books on automotive subjects. It also houses an extensive collection of written documents on the history of the company itself, as well as its products and motor racing record. These archive media are stored in around 3,500 red special containers.
Visitors to the museum can obtain a view of the user zone with library through a glass partition. Those suitably inspired by this sight will find various books about Porsche in the museum shop, carefully selected from the huge range of works already written about Porsche.
