The story of Porsche is also a story about pioneering spirit, passion and courage. A story of people who, like Ferry Porsche, believed in their dreams and achieved something special. The sports car manufacturer has never lost sight of its roots over the past 75 years. Porsche combines tradition and innovation. Porsche makes dreams come true.
We have anchored tradition in our company strategy over the long term. It is our responsibility to maintain an awareness of the company’s heritage, its products and its thinking, and to build on this. We do not view our heritage one-dimensionally, but always include other social, cultural and societal influences as well.
It is important to us to make heritage and traditions a tangible experience. As a means of bringing our founding idea to others, we are sending seven Porsche 911 sports cars out on the road – visiting cultural sites, stimulating dialogue, getting insights into valuable craftsmanship, and experiencing the past in the true sense of the word. This is what defines the Porsche Heritage Experience.
With this event concept we, the Porsche Heritage and Museum team, want to proactively bring our historical work to the world, while being sensitive to other cultures and aware of traditions. We see our products as cultural assets worthy of protection, and the work of preserving them as equally important. After all, the cars in our collection are contemporary witnesses that tell the company’s story. In order to preserve, maintain and pass on our traditions, we are continually staging new exhibitions in the Porsche Museum.
From January 2009 to the present, more than five million visitors from all over the world have experienced the history of the company in that very same place where the past and the future of the Porsche idea come together – in the 5,600-square-metre exhibition space of the museum. The company archive of Porsche AG is also housed under the same roof, in order to share all the information about the brand with people from all over the world. Just as special as the archive rooms that constitute the company’s memory is the glass-fronted workshop that gives visitors an open view of ongoing restoration work. The cultural self-image and heritage concept that define the team extend far beyond the site in Zuffenhausen. Over the past 14 years, many of the approximately 800 cars in the museum’s collection have crossed the borders of Europe and travelled as brand ambassadors and exhibits as far afield as China, Tasmania, Japan, South Africa and the US. They have been shown at trade fairs where they told the company’s story and have taken part in rallies and many other motorsport events. The world has been their home and historical public relations their mission.
In autumn 2023, the third Porsche Heritage Experience is coming to Rhineland-Palatinate, where participants can look forward to some very special accommodation in the form of the Kloster Hornbach Hotel. Originally built among the ruins of an eighth-century Benedictine abbey, it was converted into a hotel by its present owners. It is an extraordinary story. No less interesting is the history that has been written by Hambach Castle. Almost 200 years ago, around 30,000 people demonstrated here for days on end for freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of the press. The core achievements of German democracy are forever bound up with Hambach Castle. A further stop at Weinessiggut Doktorenhof is planned for the travellers. The art of cultivating vinegar is thousands of years old and has been passed down from generation to generation at the traditional facility where it is produced in Venningen. Then we take a look at hiker hut culture in the Palatinate Forest, an intangible cultural asset recognised by UNESCO as worthy of preservation, as is our last destination, Speyer Cathedral. As far back as 500 years ago, the restorers of the building were already intent on conserving and maintaining what was around them. Today the cathedral is recognised as the biggest surviving Romanesque church in the world.
It is also our goal to preserve cultural assets worthy of protection for future generations. To tell the story of our company, we are sending our cars out as cultural ambassadors. This rolling cultural exchange is always focused on the three pillars of culture, identity and tradition. In this way, Porsche Heritage and Museum is not just an institution that houses collections and watches over the past, but is literally also a means of transporting the past into the future.
“Cultural assets are usually irreplaceable, and their variety and character must be protected and preserved. Porsche Heritage and Museum doesn’t just preserve the tradition of the brand, it also translates it and transports it into the future.”
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