Smoked Porter i.e. vs Rauchbier?

Some porters are lagered in Germany and the Baltic Countries. Yuengling porter is lagered here in the states. Both styles can be very good. Porter was originally an ale and the vast majority are ales.

 

Disregarding the argument that "ale" isn't a term the Germans use (this mixing of terms tend to lead to minor squabbles on here) - not all rauchbiers are bottom fermented/lagers.
There are weissbier versions of rauchbiers, which are warm/top fermented. Both Schlenkerla and Spezial have them, although I believe only Shlenkerla's version is exported.

 

I am not sure there is much difference between lagered porter and schwarzbier.

 

I think rauchbier is a smoked marzen style.

 

I'm pretty sure rauchbier is German catch-all for smoked beers. If a German brewery was to make a smoked stout/porter I would assume they would just call it a rauchbier. As has already been said, there are smoked weissbiers which are referred to as rauchbier. There are also smoked marzen, smoked helles lagers, smoked bocks, smoked doppelbocks......they are pretty much all referred to as rauchbier.

Using large quantities of smoked malt has a way of dramatically narrowing the gulfs between different flavor profiles. An extraordinarily bitter-hoppy IPA, a sticky-sweet barleywine, and an enamel-shreddingly sour beer would all taste pretty similar if they were brewed with 20%-30% smoked malt.