German Creative Culture and Creativity in Germany

GRÜSS GOTTa rough guide to

german creativity and german

creative culture

@flocoflorian avdic, hi!

ZEE GERMANS!

schiller and goethe: humbly saying hello from weimar

AKA THE GUYS FROM THE LAND OF THE

POETS & THE THINKERS

our major areas of creativity

WHAT?OH! OH YES...EXCUSE ME.SO SORRY.I WASN‘T -I DID NOTCLEARLY,I MEANT...

SE GUYS FROM SE LÄND OF SE POETS

AND SE SINKERS

Thinking Philosophy: Germans always tried (and keep on trying) to develop perfect system. That is: crystal clear terms - crystally clear defined, deduced and established - in perfect logical proportion build a closed

system that explains, well, everythingposters (c) geniscarreras.com

YEP, THERE WAS A REASON WHY KANT IS AN

AMAZON TOPSELLER, BUT HARDLY READ

a

Writing poems, novels, dramas, everything, countless epochs and works - and... we all read

some of those

(c) frenzel

DOES NOT SOUND SO UN-CREATIVE

double negative, another german specialty

NO!image (c) devilstar

WE ARE NOT CREATIVE

image (c) devilstar

ASK US!

image (c) devilstar

WE‘LL SWEAR WE ARE NOT

image (c) devilstar

RELIABLE,DISCIPLINED...

THAT‘S US

image (c) devilstar

WE ARE

CREATIVEthat‘s how our car industry works.

N O T

HOWEVER

„EXPORTWELTMEISTER“

world champion in exporting goods: others seem to like german products

PAH. JUST BUSINESS...

3 OF THE 5 MOST SUCCESSFUL

ARTISTS WORLDWIDE ARE GERMAN

gerhard richter, georg baselitz & rosemarie trockel - according to number and importance of exhibitions

EVEN IN ADVERTISING... LAST TIME, WE WERE

TOP 5 IN CANNES

FROM INVENTIN MODERN

CALCULATIONadam riese

WAGNER‘S RING

what a story - of everything, remember the beginning?

MODERN ARCHITECTURE

bauhaus

IT‘S NOT THAT THERE IS NO

CREATIVITY, BUT...

CREATIVITY AND ZEE GERMANS IS

AN AWKWARD THING

GERMANS...

EVERYDAYCREATIVE

WE MANAGE AN ARMY OF 20M TINY DWARFS

DEMONSTRATING:THIS IS NOT JUST A

GARDEN. THIS IS THE GARDEN

GARDEN - FOR GERMANS, THAT‘S

CREATIVITIY (ALMOST) AT IT‘S BEST

YES, THERE‘S A DWARF AWARD

for particularly nice and tidy garden work

AND HOME IMPROVEMENT... GOSH, WHAT A

WONDERFUL WAY TO GET CREATIVE

THIS IS PROBABLY THE LYNCHPIN OF

GERMAN EVERYDAY CREATIVITY

FISCHER DÜBEL best friend of german home improvers - most proliferated dowel

EVEN BETTER THAN WORLD-CLASS

BEARDSalso a trophy, another world championship for the germans

ORGANIZEDCREATIVITY

OKTOBERFEST: BIGGEST

ORGANIZED DRINKING IN THE

WORLD

FANMEILE72.000 square meter fans watching and celebrating football, 300.000 saw the opening game 2006

CARNIVAL

not rio, but what else is there?

CREATIVEORGANIZATION

WASTE SEPARATION:INVENTOR & WORLD

CHAMPION

ENERGY SAVING

THE PEAK OF AWESOMENESS: SMOKING BAN IN BARS, OH YAAA

MAKING SURE EVERYBODY GETS WHAT HE NEEDS

WHEN HE NEEDS IT

AND ALWAYS THE VERY WELL-DESERVED PLACE

THIS SAUSAGE IS NOT ALLOWED TO HEAR THE MID DAY BELL

THIS DEMANDS 7 FULL MINUTES

TO TAP

THIS ONE CAN ONLY BE SERVED IN THIS TYPE OF GLASS -

EVERYTHING ELSE IS A PROPER SIN

SAME HERE

AND HERE

AND... WELL, YOU GET THE IDEA

GERMAN CREATIVITY IS ABOUT...

WE LOVE TO INTELLECTUALIZE,

THEORIZE AND TECHNOLOGIZE

PERFECT

RELIABLE ANDDISCIPLINED

WE‘RE NOT CREATIVE!!!

GODDAMNIT!

SERIOUSLY, BECAUSE...

BEING CREATIVE EQUALS TRICKERY

IT‘S SKIPPING THE QUEUE

RUSHING THE BEER

wrong glass, too

AVOIDING TAXES

NOT RELIABLE,NOT DISCIPLINED,

UNCONTROLLABLE

HALF-ASSED

THAT‘S CREATIVE

THAT‘S A B R I D G E

WE DON‘T WANT.WE DON‘T WANT TO BE CREATIVE

THERE‘S A BACKGROUND STORY TO THAT

IT ALL STARTS WITH GOOD OLD GOD

GOD‘S SPARK

to be precise

HITS THE GENIUS

THE GENIUS!

THE GENIUS!

GENIUS!

cannot indicate scientifically how it brings about its product, but rather gives the rule as nature. Hence, where

an author owes a product to his genius, he does not himself know how the ideas for it have entered into his head, nor has he it in his power to invent the like at pleasure, or methodically, and communicate the same to others in such

precepts as would put them in a position to produce similar productsIMMANUEL KANT, THE UNREAD PHILOSOPHY GIANT

„

cannot indicate scientifically how it brings about its product, but rather gives the rule as nature. Hence, where

an author owes a product to his genius, he does not himself know how the ideas for it have entered into his head, nor has he it in his power to invent the like at pleasure, or methodically, and communicate the same to others in such

precepts as would put them in a position to produce similar productsIMMANUEL KANT, THE UNREAD PHILOSOPHY GIANT

„does not imitate, but completes what nature couldn‘t accomplish.

creates possible worlds, it becomes the creator and - sort of - god.his ideas are not only his ideas - god-given...

OK, NOT NECESSARILY SUNSHINE AND RAINBOW ALL THE TIME, BUT...

WOW

GENIUS

GOD-GIVEN SHIT

CREATES STUFF

BUT

GOD‘S SPARK, GENIUS, ALL THAT...

THERE‘S AN IMPORTANT CATCH:

THE

IDEA ITSELF ISN‘T

WORTH A LOT

NO NEED TO CARE ABOUT THE REST OF

THE WORLD

CREATINGthat‘s what it‘s all about

DEMANDS!

FLEISShttp://www.dict.cc/?s=fleiss

AND

AND

FLEISShttp://www.dict.cc/?s=fleiss

AND

NOCH MEHR FLEISS

hard and diligent work

„CREATIVITY HAPPENS WHILE

YOU‘RE WORKING... INSPIRATION IS OVERRATED“

says karl lagerfeld, fashion man, creative titan

GERMANS LIKE THE 10% 90% NOTION

ZEE GERMANS ARE GOOD WITH SWEAT

LET CREATIVITY GO

DOING AS IF THAT WAS THE VERY VERY

LAST THING THAT MATTERED

CHILD‘S PLAY

BUT! ACTUALLY AND REALLY KNOWING...

not feeling... we‘d admit that

THAT

SYSTEMATICALLY

OVER-VALUEING OUTCOME

UNDER-VALUEING

INSPIRATION

&

CAN TURN INTO APROCESS

PROBLEM

AND WE KNOW IT

CAN TURN INTO APROCESS

PROBLEM

TRY/ERROR

has a hard knock life with that genius dad...

AND ANOTHER ONE

RIGHT?

IT MAY BE A REASON WHY FEW KNOW HIM*

BUT EVERYBODY HIM

GERMANS HAVE A HARD TIME AGREEING TO THE FOLLOWING,

BECAUSE, ACTUALLY, YOU KNOW, THE OPPOSITE ISSHOULD BE

TRUE. YET...

SOMETHING PERFECT IS NOT PERFECT

IF NOBODY CARES

despite it clearly being perfect

GREAT THINGS NEED TALKING

GREAT THINGS ARE TALKING

INTUITIVELY

YET, OUR RELATIONSHIP TO CREATIVITY,

MARKETING, DESIGN IS SOMEHOW...

POETIC

COMEDIC

BEAR WITH US, WE HAVE NICE DOGS :)

THANKSgermans get creativity in some, maybe many

ways. the poets and thinkers work hard, organized and productive. and they sweat.however, if you see one; give him a hand.

some randomness, some child‘s play - and the people part will be great. will help to

forget that weird genius, right?

i am florian avdic, creative planner @ ogilvy & mather

[email protected] in touch

@floco

you know it, that was dieter rams; the guy who sort of inspired everything apple-ish of today. not precisely a

nobody, but not a steve jobs either, right?*