Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking, who became one of Germany's highest-paid executives after turned the company around in the 1990s, has resigned. He fell from grace after a bungled attempted takeover of Volkswagen which brought Porsche to the brink of bankruptcy.

It's the end of an era at the luxury sports car maker Porsche. The once-mighty Wendelin Wiedeking is stepping down as CEO of Porsche AG.

Wiedeking turned the luxury Stuttgart-based car maker around in the 1990s and made it immensely profitable. However the tough-talking CEO's star fell after his bungled attempted takeover of the much larger car maker Volkswagen, which brought Porsche to the brink of bankruptcy and left it with around €10 billion ($14 billion) in debt. Harter was the architect of the complex financial wizardry behind the Volkswagen takeover bid.