Matthias Horx

Matthias Horx (2013)

Matthias Horx (born January 25, 1955 in Düsseldorf ) is a German publicist and trend researcher .

Life

Horx attended the drawing school in Frankfurt am Main . After graduating from high school in 1973, he began studying sociology at Goethe University , which he broke off. In the 1980s he embarked on a journalistic career. 1980 to 1992 he worked as a writer and editor for Pflasterstrand , Tempo , Die Zeit and Merian . He wrote several books, one of which was also converted into a radio play version.

In 1993 he opened the trend office in Hamburg with Peter Wippermann . After leaving the company in 1998, he founded the Zukunftsinstitut based in Frankfurt am Main, which has a branch in Vienna . In 2017 Horx handed over the management of the operative business to Harry Gatterer. Until 2005, Horx was also a member of the journalistic network Axis des Guten .

Horx lives with his family in Vienna. He is married to the British journalist Oona Strathern and has two sons.

theses

According to Horx's life project, the development of “ futurology ” in the 1960s and 1970s into a consulting discipline for companies, society and politics. His methodical work revolves around "the development of a new synthesis prognostic - a combination of systems, social, cognitive and evolutionary sciences."

His publications essentially come from three thematically and chronologically separate periods:

1. The first phase includes features articles in various scene and lifestyle magazines. Publications of this kind emerged around the mid / late 1980s.
2. The second phase covers thematically by and large the criticism of his previous comrades and describes the "left wrong ways" identified by Horx. Publications of this type mostly date from between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s.
3. The third and current phase includes the topic of trends . Here Horx works as a management consultant and author; he also gives lectures. As part of this, he advertises his work on the early recognition of contemporary developments and the economic use of his future prognoses.

Horx describes the change in social values ​​and ways of life diagnosed by him under the conditions of globalized capitalism . In addition to questions about the future of the world of work, he deals with the effects of demographic change and describes a change in values ​​in education, consumption and leisure that he postulates . Together with his temporary business partner Eike Wenzel , Horx is promoting the idea that markets are increasingly turning into meaningful markets .

The sociologist Holger Rust repeatedly criticized Horx and trend research as being unscientific.

Forecasts

At the communal summer talks 2019 in Bad Aussee , Matthias Horx predicted an urbanization of the village. He calls this concept the progressive province .

False prognoses

Horx also made statements that in retrospect are classified as not applicable.

In 2001 he published a "study" on The Future of the Internet . In it, he predicted that the Internet would not develop into a mass medium like radio and television in the foreseeable future; he also doubted widespread use. In this study, Horx also viewed the future of e-commerce with skepticism: If half of all goods were ordered online, this would result in the cities being clogged.

A statement from 2010 is also often seen as a failure prediction: From Facebook no one will talk more in five to six years .

Horx published counter-statements about incorrect prognoses on its website.

Refugee situation, demographic development and new rights

Horx assumes that subversive “asylum critics” will radicalize. He calls PEGIDA and activists driven by right-wing views a “rebellion that is anti-social and anti-subversive”. Similar to the left-wing radical movement of the 1970s, this will “partially radicalize and then fail”. In view of the new urban majorities showing solidarity with refugees, “this backlash wave will not really get through”.

Fonts (selection)

• It is progressing. An emergency novel. Rotbuch-Verlag, 1982, ISBN 978-3-88022-256-4 .
• with Cora Stephan , Albert Christian Sellner (eds.): Infrared - Against the utopia of total life . 1983, ISBN 3-88022-276-2 .
• Parody R. Hodan. A Perry-Rhodan parody, 1986.
• The end of alternatives or the lost innocence of radicalism. An accountability report. 1988, ISBN 3-446-14233-9 .
• The wild eighties. A Zeitgeist journey through the Federal Republic. 1990, ISBN 3-442-09469-0 .
• Uprising in the land of milk and honey. Self-knowledge of a rebellious generation. 1991, ISBN 3-442-09567-0 .
• The eight spheres of the future - a guide to the culture of the 21st century. 2000, ISBN 978-3-85436-299-9 .
• Smart Capitalism - The End of Exploitation. 2001, ISBN 978-3-8218-1664-7 .
• Future Fitness - how to increase your future skills. 2003, ISBN 3-8218-3979-1 .
• how we will live - our future begins now. 2005, ISBN 3-593-37777-2 .
• Happy Austria. 2006, ISBN 978-3-85002-578-2 .
• Guide to Future Optimism - Why the World Is Not Getting Worse. Campus-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-593-38251-7 .
• Technolution - How our future is developing. Campus-Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-593-38555-6 .
• The book of change: How people shape the future. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2009, ISBN 978-3-421-04433-4 .
• The megatrend principle - how the world of tomorrow is created. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2011, ISBN 978-3-421-04443-3 .
• Daring the future: About dealing intelligently with the unpredictable. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2013, ISBN 978-3-421-04444-0 .
• Future love. The future of love, sex and family, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-421-04732-8 .
• 15½ rules for the future. Guide to visionary life. Econ Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-430-21013-3 .
• The future after Corona. How a crisis changes society, our thinking and our actions . Econ publishing house. Berlin 2020. ISBN 978-3-430-21042-3 .

literature

• Norbert Stresau : Parody R. Hodan. In: The Science Fiction Year 1987 (Vol. 2), edited by Wolfgang Jeschke , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-453-31365-8 , pp. 592-594
• Wolfgang Neuhaus : Technolution. In: The Science Fiction Year 2010 , edited by Sascha Mamczak and Wolfgang Jeschke, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 2010; ISBN 978-3-453-52681-5 , pp. 919-922

Web links

Commons : Matthias Horx  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Matthias Horx in the catalog of the German National Library
• Matthias Horx in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Horx website
• Internet will not become a mass medium - assessment by futurologist Matthias Horx from 2001 In: DerStandard.at
• Megatrend Matthias Detailed portrait in the monthly magazine Datum
• Forecast deposit. Harald Martenstein knows two more trends than Mr. Horx. Critical article by Harald Martenstein in Die Zeit
• Interview on Saturday with Matthias Horx In: WDR 3 (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) , July 1, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ^ Trend researcher Matthias Horx: Mr. Future's withdrawal . ( handelsblatt.com [accessed January 2, 2018]).
2. ↑ Biography in horx.com, accessed on July 5, 2020.
3. ↑ Holger Rust: The anti-trend book - clear thinking instead of trend rumors. Ueberreuter, 1997.
4. ↑ Holger Rust: Illusions of the future. Critique of trend research. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2008.
5. ↑ Illusions from the trend forge. ( Memento from July 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: Bild der Wissenschaft , issue 10/2008, accessed on August 5, 2015.
6. ^ The "Progressive Province" communal on September 16, 2019
7. ↑ "Internet is not becoming a mass medium" . In: derStandard.at . ( derstandard.at [accessed on July 3, 2017]).
8. ↑ "In five to six years no one will be talking about Facebook" . In: derStandard.at . ( derstandard.at [accessed on July 3, 2017]).
9. ↑ Robert Egger, WebWerker: false prognoses , Internet, social media. Retrieved July 3, 2017 . 
10. ↑ "Asylum critics will fail in the long term". Interview with Horx on Deutschlandradio Kultur , November 7, 2015, accessed on January 4, 2016.