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Geniale Querköpfe tells of dreamers, truants and geniuses. In his book Christof Giessler offers new and often surprising portraits of seventeen different individuals, some well known, some less well known, but all of them stubbornly single-minded in pursuing their objectives.
The portraits range across the centuries — from Maria Sybilla Merian and her late seventeenth century drawings of flora and fauna right through to famous personalities of the present day such as Bill Gates and Steven Spielberg. The portraits range across the whole of society, too, telling us how children could turn into professional boxers, stitch teddy bears, learn to fly or invent plastic wall-plugs, and how by such means they ended up being more or less famous scientists, authors, athletes, pop musicians, programmers.
In the process the author clearly demonstrates that fame as such is not what really matters, but rather the path his subjects took to achieve it: they are ‘true oddballs who weren’t interested in being famous, but in pursuing the little matters of large importance that they had set their minds on. This book is all about these oddballs, and about the things that go in in their heads, the things that puzzle and intrigue, fascinate and captivate, amuse and delight them.’
One thing all these ‘oddballs’ have in common is that no one could have dreamt that they would ever end up being famous. Almost all the individuals portrayed here had difficult family backgrounds and as children suffered poverty and want, social exclusion or a serious illness. Others were ‘merely’ no-hopers at school. This helps the book’s young readers to identify with the ordinary human side of these extraordinary individuals, and thus to believe more readily in their own abilities and potential.
David Livingstone represents an encouraging example of this kind: as a child he had to work in a factory to bring in money for his family, before going on to explore the continent of Africa and discover the Victoria Falls.
Or there’s Muhammad Ali, who as a black child called Cassius Clay grew up in a small town in America and suffered because of his skin colour. In order to defend himself he learnt how to box — and became the most famous boxer of all time.
Another object lesson in how to retain both courage and drive in the face of dreadful circumstances is provided by Margarete Steiff , who — like many others at the time — fell prey to polio and was condemned from an early age to life in a wheelchair, but none the less became a young tailor and invented the world-famous ‘button in ear’ teddy bear.
The portraits are little stories rather than scholarly essays. They offer a great deal of worthwhile information, and through a judicious combination of anecdotes, quotations and facts present an endearing picture of each personality — mostly within the compass of three pages. In contradistinction to many other, rather drily factual biographies, Christof Giessler’s book describes its subjects in short, vivid, easily digestible sentences. Each portrayal begins with a photograph of the individual concerned plus a brief biographical summary. Hubert Warter’s original collages, illustrations and detailed, occasionally cartoon-like drawings serve to add extra richness and impact to Christof Giessler’s words.
Geniale Querköpfe is an informative but by no means ‘didactic’ book which encourages children not to give up if they are truly enthusiastic about something, and to ignore adults’ excessively commonsensical dismissal of their ‘silly ideas’ and instead pursue them with dogged determination such that one day perhaps ‘dreams and fancies will turn into marvellous fairy tales that make the real world seem unreal and vice versa’.
Imke Borchers
November 2007
[Translated by Helene Ragg-Kirkby]
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