As he steps down from the Executive Board, Martin Aichele hands over the role of the sixth Executive Board member to Professor Dr. Katja Gutsche, who will work closely with President Dr. Alexandra Bormann (centre) and the other members of the university management team in her new role as “Chief Innovation & Relationship Officer.” Photos below: Teaching in the early 1990s and today — Martin Aichele helped shape the media programme at HFU for 36 years.
Creativity comes first - Professor Martin Aichele retires after 36 years at Furtwangen University
In the beginning − as Professor Martin Aichele vividly recalls from his early days at HFU − the smell of machine oil was everywhere. “The professors were engineers. They wore white lab coats and ties.” 1990. There were no emails at the university yet. And certainly no media studies programmes. And then he arrived − 30 years young and responsible for setting up the studio for the brand-new Computer Science in Media programme. One of the first professors from the emerging new media industry. The first at HFU with a cell phone. The first to fly to America with students to carry out a film project. But let’s take it one step at a time.
An era is coming to an end at Furtwangen University (HFU) − Prof. Martin Aichele retires on 1 September. He served at HFU for 36 years, shaping the university’s media department. He was the long-time dean of the Faculty of Digital Media and, for the past two years, also a member of the university’s Executive Board as “Chief Marketing Officer.”
Thirty-six years at HFU mean thirty-six years full of stories and experiences that are hard to do justice to. Aichele has anecdotes to share about nearly every generation of students and recalls outstanding talents and inspiring projects. His fondest memory is of a student project that managed to combine his passion for moving images with his other great love − Martin Aichele is a musician through and through. Anyone who has been playing in a successful blues band since the ’70s, lives in a house with 33 guitars, and has shared the stage with all kinds of musical greats − including international stars − can inspire students in a special way. “When I was a student, I once played with the wonderful Eb Davis, and he, in turn, introduced me to Sidney ‘Guitar Crusher’ Selby. What an impressive personality − and an incredibly fascinating life story,” Aichele recounts. His students enthusiastically embraced the idea of a film biography about the blues musician − and traveled with him all the way to the clubs of New York to produce a 90-minute documentary.
He has also worked for local industry; together with students, he produced promotional films for companies such as REINER, ZIER and KOEPFER. And he documented swimming professor Andreas Fath’s conquest of the Rhine in the film “1231 Kilometers.” To do so, he navigated the narrowest streets of the Swiss Alps with students in a massive RV converted into a video studio. No problem for him − he had just passed his commercial driver’s license exam to be able to drive 40-metric-ton trucks for relief transport.
Aichele’s own love of film developed while he was studying in Berlin. Having grown up in Freiburg-Kappel, it was clear to him after school, “I have to get out of here!” He specialised in video production and marketing; the Berlin University of the Arts and the capital’s music scene offered him every opportunity to flourish. “That was an amazing time,” he enthuses today. On the side he worked as a cameraman − and was very successful at it − while leading a life that was at times bizarre; flying out early in the morning for a shoot, then rushing back and sitting in class the next day, “Do any of you have my lecture notes?”
After graduating, Aichele first became director of the Institute for Audiovisual Communication in St. Gallen. But then he received a call from the HFU who were looking for someone to lead digital media production, and a completely new field of study was to be established. “That was incredible. We were the very first in Europe − and perhaps even the world − to offer media informatics. We received 600 applications for our 36 spots − an admissions cap just like in medical school!” he recalls. As outdated as the details of the media back then may sound today − no internet, no email, no cell phones − one thing was already clear back then; the future of media lies in the digital realm. “But I didn’t get my first web address until 1995 in the U.S.,” says Aichele. During a research semester in San Francisco, he experienced the first major upheavals in the communications sector, and soon these were also being felt in Germany and at HFU. “I came back with my first cell phone,” he laughs, “I think a lot of people thought that was a bit pretentious back then.” However, even then, it was simply convenient to be reachable − “before that, there were always three metres of faxes waiting for me at home in the evenings.”
However, the media professor eventually found himself drawn back to the field. In 1998, he took a five-year leave of absence to join a major agency. He recalls that time as “pretty crazy,” but also “absolutely amazing” − full of spectacular projects for massive auto shows, for which he traveled all over the world − to Paris, Tokyo, Detroit. Working for major clients like Volkswagen and Siemens inspired him to found his own agency, “AicheleIdeas.”
The biggest highlights for him were winning the winning concept for the German pavilion in Lisbon and Aichi twice, in collaboration with exhibition architects. There, he implemented “Experience Design” with multimedia applications and was also appointed to a small, exclusive advisory board for EXPO 2000 alongside cultural figures such as Volker Schlöndorff.
After five years, however − partly because he had since become the very proud father of a son — Aichele returned to the university, with which he had remained in close contact through teaching assignments that he somehow managed to squeeze into his schedule. He returned with fresh ideas and a keen understanding of cross-media applications which led to the launch of the next − and immediately highly successful − pioneering degree programme, Media Design, at HFU. Aichele played an active role in the faculty; as Dean of academic affairs, as Vice-Dean for teaching, and finally during four terms as Dean. “And then the new president called me and asked if I’d like to take charge of HFU’s Marketing Department as part of the Executive Board,” says Aichele. He reports that, while developing a new concept for the Communications and Marketing Departments, he often found himself reminiscing about his time at the agency. And that felt really good.
Leaving the university behind − he had to get used to that idea at first. But the prospect of having more time suits him very well − with his band “BLOSSBLUEZ,” he has various gigs and concerts coming up, and this creative mind certainly isn’t running out of ideas. Retirement? Martin Aichele laughs but then becomes pensive, “From elementary school until today − 60 years − I’ve always been subject to a certain rhythm. Music will help me find a good rhythm in this new phase of life. And there’s more to come; consulting and coaching, but also volunteer work. And windsurfing, cycling, photography and chess…”
Spotlight on profs
In this series, we introduce the renowned scholars who teach and conduct research at Furtwangen University. HFU is a university of applied sciences; as a result, its professors have many years of practical experience. We present these fascinating personal and professional stories in no particular order.
Further impressions
