Herbert Linge’s amazingly varied Porsche career would be unimaginable today. From wartime apprentice to manager of Weissach, via the workshop, development testing, racing and managing Porsche in the US and Europe, and leading a safety crusade in Formula 1.
Born in Weissach, where he lived all his life, Herbert was a bright boy and wanted to continue in school. However, his father Karl, who worked in a foundry in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, couldn’t afford to pay for it. Reluctantly, at 14 Herbert left school and at his father’s suggestion sought work at a company in a smart new building on Zuffenhausen’s Schwieberdinger Straße, which was offering apprenticeships: Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG. It was the beginning of a connection that lasted 80 years.
A year later in spring 1944, Allied bombing…