The first Porsche 356 was built in Gmünd, Austria.
Porsche’s early postwar operation was based in Gmünd, in the Austrian state of Carinthia. There, the company completed the mid-engine 356/1 prototype in 1948 and began building early production 356 cars by hand. The first Porsche 356 was road-certified in Austria on June 8, 1948, a date often treated as the model’s birth.
The Gmünd-built cars were produced in very small numbers and used hand-formed aluminium bodies. Porsche made approximately 50 cars there before relocating automobile production to Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen in 1950. After the move, production increased substantially and the bodies were made from steel, with Reutter handling much of the body manufacturing.
Gmünd is sometimes confused with Stuttgart because Stuttgart later became Porsche’s principal home and the long-term production site for the 356 and 911. Salzburg is also associated with Porsche in Austria through Porsche Holding and motorsport history, but it was not the town where the first 356 was built. Today, a private Porsche Automuseum in Gmünd preserves this important chapter.