Louise Piëch

Louise Porsche was born in Vienna in 1904 as the first child of Ferdinand Porsche and Aloisia Johanna Kaes. Her younger brother Ferdinand Anton Ernst "Ferry" Porsche was born in 1909. According to Deutsche Biographie, she studied drawing and painting privately in Vienna with Josef Engelhart, and also took part successfully in motor races, reflecting the Porsche family's early involvement in automobiles.

In 1929, Piëch became a co-partner in her father's design office in Stuttgart. During the Second World War, the Porsche design office was relocated to Gmünd in Carinthia.

In October 1943, at Louise Piëch's initiative, the Austrian assets of Porsche KG Stuttgart were transferred to her and her husband Anton Piëch and incorporated into the newly founded Porsche Konstruktionen Ges.m.b.H., based in Gmünd. In 1947, Louise Piëch and Ferry Porsche formally established the Austrian company Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH in Gmünd and served as its directors while their father was detained in France. The company soon received a commission from Italian industrialist Piero Dusio to develop the Cisitalia all-wheel-drive Formula One racing car; the proceeds from this contract helped the family post bail for Ferdinand Porsche.

In 1948, Ferdinand Porsche, Ferry Porsche, Louise Piëch, Anton Piëch and Volkswagen general director Heinrich Nordhoff signed a wide-ranging agreement with Volkswagen at Bad Reichenhall. The agreement included licence fees for each Volkswagen Beetle produced, permission to build a sports car based on the Beetle, sales through the Volkswagen network, technical-service arrangements, and the right to act as Volkswagen general importer in Austria. In 1949, Louise Piëch and Ferry Porsche moved the headquarters of Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH from Gmünd to Salzburg, where Louise and Anton Piëch developed Volkswagen imports for the Austrian market, while Ferry Porsche returned to Stuttgart to develop what became Porsche AG.

Piëch was known within the Porsche family for her enthusiasm for fast cars, and Ferry Porsche gave her the first road-going Porsche 911 with a turbocharger, the 911 Turbo “No. 1”, for her 70th birthday in 1974. She also painted landscapes and was interested in hunting.

Louise Piëch died on 10 February 1999 in Zell am See, aged 94. She was buried in the private chapel at the Schüttgut estate in Zell am See, following Porsche family tradition.