What’s become of Otl Aicher’s former abode? A visit to the Allgäu.
otl aicher 100: “we have bread, we have games” lecture and panel discussion at the Akademie der Künste
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Olympic Games, the IDZ invites you to a discussion on the vision of the Munich Games and the status quo as well as the future of the Olympic movement on 26 August. The event at Berlin’s Akademie der Künste on Pariser Platz is part of the “otl aicher 100” initiative, which highlights Otl Aicher’s diverse cosmos of topics on the online platform otlaicher.de. Aicher, whose birth centenary we are celebrating this year, was responsible for the visual appearance of the Munich Games as design supervisor.
Berlin, 2 August 2022 – 36 years after the first German Olympics, above which the Nazi flags still flew, Otl Aicher created an all-encompassing design system for the Games of the XX Olympiad in Munich, with the rainbow as the color palette and a dachshund as the mascot. While the 1936 Games served the propagandistic interests of the Nazis, the 1972 Games attempted to present an open-minded image and set a deliberate counterpoint to Nazi Germany’s past.
The organizing committee saw the hosting of the Munich Games as a historical obligation and task. They were to present a Germany as a reliable, peaceful partner in the global community, living the Olympic idea of friendly cooperation between nations. An elementary component in building this image was the visual appearance, developed under the direction of Otl Aicher. It was intended to convey the sporting and programmatic content while simultaneously emphasizing the playful side. The “Rainbow Games” have set standards that are still valid today.
However, the Munich Games also provided a tragic stage for the conflicts in world politics. The utopia of the “youth of the world” meeting for cheerful games in a tolerant country was shattered by the Palestinian terrorist attack on the Israeli team on 5 September 1972. The fact that the games were not canceled in the wake of this tragedy led to critical discussions across the world regarding the IOC’s sense of moral responsibility. After Munich, the Olympics were further politicized and commercialized. “The games must go on,” Avery Brundage’s statement after the assassination has gained seemingly eternal validity. In 2036, the Olympic Games could once again be held in Berlin. And in Tel Aviv. An idea entirely in the sense of Otl Aicher? Would he have supported it?
The debate about the ideals and status quo of the Olympic movement has been with us for decades. The public image, unfulfilled promises of sustainability and, not forgetting, a newly adjusting world order raise fundamental questions about the future of the Games and their social acceptance. The event “we have bread, we have games” recalls the utopia and vision of the Munich Games and addresses these questions.
Greetings:
Prof. Fritz Frenkler, Director of the Architectural Art Section Akademie der Künste
Prof. Karsten Henze, Chairman of the Board of the IDZ
Talk:
Karsten de Riese, photographer
The officially commissioned photographer of the organizing committee of the 1972 Olympic Games shows his view of the development of a utopia – a vision as a counter proposal to Berlin 1936 and to games of the present like 2022 in Beijing. De Riese was an active observer in front of and behind the scenes and accompanied the Games and their protagonists, including Otl Aicher, Willi Daume as well as the officials of the IOC and its president Avery Brundage. His photographs show sports venues that did not serve as purely functional architecture, but were created as a backdrop for an Olympic festival with its own special spirit. The 1972 Games present themselves as a timeless and, to this day, unique intercultural event that united people and nations, where the world was a guest. sense.
Panel Discussion:
Dr. Benjamin Bendrich, sports scientist, teacher and blogger: derballluegtnicht.com
Dajana Eitberger, luger, winner of the Olympic silver medal in Pyeongchang 2018, presidium member of the independent athlete representation “Athletes Germany”
Dr. Tobias Hoffmann, director of the Bröhan Museum, curator of the special exhibition “Otl Aicher. Olympia 72,” August 26 to October 30, 2022
Uwe Ritzer, reporter at the Süddeutsche Zeitung, co-author of “The Games of the Century: Olympia 1972, Terror and the New Germany,” dtv, Munich 2021
“we have bread, we have games”
Olympia als Politikum, Olympia as politics, Olympia as utopia, Olympia as big business. An event of the IDZ Berlin in the context of “otl aicher 100”
Venue: Akademie der Künste, Plenary Hall, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin
Termin: Friday, 26 August, 2022, beginning at 7:00 pm (admission from 6:30 pm)
After the event there will be a get-together.
We ask for an early registration over the IDZ-homepage.
We have compiled image material for your press coverage on our press page.
Editorial team:
Florian Aicher, Thomas Edelmann, Prof. Dr. Chup Friemert, Kai Gehrmann (Artistic Director), Jasmin Jouhar, Katharina Kurz, Prof. Dr. Dagmar Rinker, Gerrit Terstiege and Fabian Wurm (Chief Editor).
Sponsor:
Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Corporate partners:
Bulthaup GmbH & Co KG; ERCO GmbH; FSB Franz Schneider Brakel GmbH + Co KG
Other sponsors and cooperation partners:
Bauhaus Dessau e.V.; Akademie der Künste, Berlin; Deutscher Werkbund Berlin e.V.; HfG-Archiv Ulm
Media partners:
ARCH+; brand eins; ndion
otl aicher 100: “of course a car is also a sign” – Otl Aicher’s critique of the car. Retrospective and discussion
With a retrospective of Otl Aicher’s book “kritik am auto – schwierige verteidigung des autos gegen seine anbeter” (Criticism of the Car – Difficult Defence of the Car against its Worshippers) published in 1984, the IDZ continues its series of events on the “otl aicher 100” initiative. The discussion evening will take place on 25 June 2022 in the rooms of the former Ulm School of Design.
Berlin, 2 June 2022 – This year, the International Design Center Berlin (IDZ) rememberers the life, work and impact of the designer, who would have turned one hundred on 13 May, with the web platform otlaicher100.de and a complementary series of events. Questions that concerned Aicher will be discussed and explored in depth with today’s representatives of the design world.
The discussion on 25 June will focus on his book “kritik am auto – schwierige verteidigung des autos gegen seine anbeter“, published in 1984. Aicher writes “a critical book about cars, but he does not hide the fact that he loves cars”, says the blurb. His interest in the overall phenomenon of the car, to which he dedicated his analytical, sometimes polemical writing, corresponded to his enthusiasm for technology. He took 100 years of automobile history as an occasion to review concepts, models and strategies. He also addressed the “limits of resilience”: environmental aspects, road safety, speed limits and toxins.
In the past forty years, the automobile, markets, social demands and economic trends have fundamentally evolved. Aicher could hardly have foreseen most of today’s current trends. The car is still the first means of social distinction, but the often predicted collapse of the transport system has not yet occurred. Autonomous driving may change the way it is used, luxury and design extremes dominate the scene. Where does criticism of the car operate effectively today?
Under changed conditions, what Otl Aicher already said back in 1984 applies today: “the concept alone obviously doesn’t do the trick to make a good car.” Today, we are concerned with the question of how the car must be designed in order to be less dominant in the interaction with other forms of transport, as well as to appear more urban-friendly. Questions that are also on the agenda in the discussion round are how pointless traffic can be avoided and desired mobility can be enabled.
Panellist:
Peter Wouda runs the Volkswagen Group Future Center Europe in Potsdam and designs visionary studies for the VW Group with his team. He tries to design answers for the challenges of the future from an industry perspective. Wouda is a member of the board of the IDZ Berlin.
Prof. Lutz Fügener is head of the Design and Mobility Department at the Faculty of Engineering at Hof University of Applied Sciences in Selb. For many years he has been one of the best-known lecturers training automobile designers in Germany. At the same time, he has repeatedly appeared in public with critical positions on the development of the car and the priorities of the industry.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gebhard Wulfhorst, Chair of Settlement Structure and Transport Planning at the Technical University of Munich, criticises misguided developments in mobility at city and transport planning policy level. Traffic that does not arise in the first place through cleverly planned cities and regions also does not cause any unwanted aspects.
Florian Aicher begins by reporting on his collaboration on the exhibition and the book “kritik am auto”. At the same time, he tries to relate criticism as formulated by Otl Aicher in 1984 to present sceneries.
The Hamburg journalist and critic Thomas Edelmann will moderate together with Florian Aicher.
On this evening, visitors can gain impressions of the architecture of the HfG and study some of the exhibition panels from 1984, which the HfG-Archiv Ulm, host of the event, will set up especially for the occasion. In addition, “delta 1”, the prototype of a sports car from 1967, can be seen in its original form. Created as a “study object for lightweight construction principles” by Henner Werner, Michael Conrad and Detlef Unger, graduates of the HfG Ulm, the car was introduced in Aicher’s book.
“of course a car is also a sign” – Otl Aicher’s critique of the car
Retrospective and discussion, an event of the IDZ Berlin in the context of “otl aicher 100”.
Venue: HfG-Archive Ulm, Am Hochsträß 8, 89081 Ulm, Germany
Date: Saturday, 25 June 2022, beginning 7:00 p.m.
Please register on time! You can also register now for the following events in this series.
We will be happy to provide you with photo material for press coverage upon request.
Editorial team:
Florian Aicher, Thomas Edelmann, Prof. Dr. Chup Friemert, Kai Gehrmann (Artistic Director), Jasmin Jouhar, Katharina Kurz, Prof. Dr. Dagmar Rinker, Gerrit Terstiege and Fabian Wurm (Chief Editor).
Patrons:
Funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media.
Corporate partners:
Bulthaup GmbH & Co KG; ERCO GmbH; FSB Franz Schneider Brakel GmbH + Co KG
Further sponsors and cooperation partners:
Bauhaus Dessau e.V.; Akademie der Künste, Berlin; Deutscher Werkbund Berlin e.V.; HfG-Archiv Ulm
Media partners:
ARCH+; brand eins; ndion
otl aicher 100: Celebration event at the Akademie der Künste and launch of the online platform otlaicher100.de
Today marks the centenary of Otl Aicher’s birth. The International Design Center Berlin (IDZ) is taking this date as an opportunity to pay tribute to this great designer. With otlaicher100.de, a new online platform is being launched – a curated space that provides information about the life and work of Otl Aicher and invites discourse. In addition, a discussion and lecture evening at the Akademie der Künste will focus on ethics and the cultural dimensions of artificial intelligence.
Berlin, 13 May 2022 – Otl Aicher (1922 – 1991) is considered one of the formative German protagonists of design in the 20th century. He became internationally known above all as the design commissioner for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. In addition to his design projects, he always engaged deeply with social issues and actively sought the balancing act between philosophy, commerce and design – as a university founder, graphic designer, typographer, management consultant, sculptor, philosopher, author and intervening intellectual.
Today Otl Aicher would have turned 100. On the initiative of Kai Gehrmann and Florian Aicher, the IDZ is taking this date as an opportunity to explore the life and work of this great designer under the title “otl aicher 100”.
Online platform otlaicher100.de
With otlaicher100.de, an online platform will go live in the evening that is intended to serve as a first point of contact for anyone interested in Otl Aicher and inspired by his work beyond the year of the birth anniversary. It starts with several written texts – and many pictures, some of which are still “treasures” from the HfG-Archiv Ulm, which also contains Otl Aicher’s estate. The website will continue to grow until the end of the year, so a visit will always be worthwhile.
Series of events
The website will be accompanied by a series of events in the anniversary year. The first of these is today’s lecture and discussion evening “es gibt keinen Computer, der nach freiheit ruft” (There is no computer that calls for freedom) at Akademie der Künste in Berlin. Following on from Otl Aicher’s essay “kulturen des denkens” (cultures of thinking), the lectures and discussions will focus on ethics and the cultural dimensions of artificial intelligence.
With Lukas Brand, Prof. Dr. Byung-Chul Han, Prof. Karsten Henze, Lorena Jaume-Palasí, Yasemin Keskintepe, Prof. Jeanine Meerapfel, Prof. Dr. Christoph Neuberger, Wolfgang Reul and Peter Schubert.
Further events in cooperation with Akademie der Künste, Deutscher Werkbund Berlin and HfG-Archiv Ulm are planned:
25 June 2022 “of course a car is also a sign”
Retrospective of Otl Aicher: Critique of the Car, Munich 1984
7 p.m., Ulm HfG, Am Hochsträß 8, 89081 Ulm, Germany
Registration
26 August 2022 “we have bread, we have games”
Olympics as politics, Olympics as utopia, Olympics as big business – on the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich
7 pm, Plenary Hall of the Academy of Arts, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin
Registration
20 October 2022 “there is nothing here to provides shade.”
Four men and two motorbikes in the desert
7 pm, Architektur Galerie Berlin, Karl-Marx-Allee 96, 10243 Berlin
Registration
We will be happy to provide you with photographs for your media coverage on request.
Editorial team:
Florian Aicher, Thomas Edelmann, Prof. Dr. Chup Friemert, Kai Gehrmann (Artistic Director), Jasmin Jouhar, Katharina Kurz, Prof. Dr. Dagmar Rinker, Gerrit Terstiege and Fabian Wurm (Chief Editor).
Patrons:
Funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media.
Corporate partners:
Bulthaup GmbH & Co KG; ERCO GmbH; FSB Franz Schneider Brakel GmbH + Co KG
Further sponsors and cooperation partners:
Bauhaus Dessau e.V.; Akademie der Künste, Berlin; Deutscher Werkbund Berlin e.V.; HfG-Archiv Ulm
Media partners:
ARCH+; brand eins; ndion
The Rainbow Games
