Following the Komenda Line

Entering Porsche’s World

He was not in the first wave, that small group of engineers supporting Ferdinand Porsche when he decided to set up his own engineering consultancy at the end of 1930. They were chief designer Karl Rabe, engine man Josef Kales, chassis specialist Josef Zahradnik and drive-train designer Karl Fröhlich. About a year later, in November 1931, Erwin Komenda entered the doors of Kronenstrasse 24, one of the newest business buildings in Stuttgart. All told they were a dozen people on a single floor. By 1938 they would need three floors for a staff of 93.

In his heyday at Porsche in 1956, Erwin Komenda is central with engineering chief Karl Rabe at left and Ferry Porsche.

Those first employees were chosen because Porsche, then 56, had worked with them and knew them well. As for Erwin Komenda, his activity at Steyr from 1926 to 1929 included the beginning of Ferdinand Porsche’s complete transformation of the Steyr offering, culminating in the Austria, a magnificent 5.3-liter straight-eight. Ferdinand Porsche had not forgotten Komenda, who had been lured to Daimler-Benz in 1929. His impressive work there led to his move across Stuttgart to the new Porsche venture in November 1931.