Ralf Geisler

Ralf Geisler around 1970 at his workplace with J. Walter Thompson in Frankfurt am Main

Ralf Rainer Geisler (born March 29, 1945 in Beckdorf , Stade district ) is a German writer and copywriter .

Life

Ralf Geisler was born in 1945 in Beckdorf , Stade district, south of Hamburg. His mother, Gertraude Erika Ursula Geisler, b. Hess, was on the run from Danzig and gave birth in Beckdorf in a restaurant that had been converted into a hospital. Then she continued her escape with the newborn son. His father Helmut Geisler, who was in the Second World War and a secondary school teacher in Danzig, fell victim to a partisan attack in Italy as an escaped prisoner of war.

Ralf Geisler spent his childhood in the village of Guntersblum on the Rhine, attended elementary school there and then switched to Gutenberg Gymnasium in Mainz. As a result of job-related changes in his stepfather, he first moved to Düsseldorf (Lessing-Gymnasium) and then to the Offenbach am Main district, where he attended the Rudolf Koch School in Offenbach, where he graduated from high school. Then he moved to the newly opened Ruhr University Bochum to study German, political science and journalism. In 1967 he dropped out of college to start a career as a copywriter. In the further course of his career in the German branch of the US advertising agency J. Walter Thompson in Frankfurt am Main, he realized advertising and communication campaigns for internationally known branded companies, financial institutions and government institutions. Exemplary is his work (Stile Olivetti) based on the artistic demands of the office equipment manufacturer Olivetti , with the involvement of artists such as Thomas Bayrle , Alfred von Meysenbug and Heinz Edelmann . Or the first anti-drug campaign in Germany for the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) with famous representatives of the rock 'n roll scene such as Pete Townshend (The Who) or Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) as testimonials (testimonials).

From 1976 on, he moved to the subsidiary J. Walter Thompson Public Relations GmbH, the then leading PR agency in Germany, as deputy managing director. On the occasion of a consultation with the Frankfurt Theater, there was a brief cooperation with Günter Grass , who at the time was the artistic advisor to the stage, which was particularly well known for its Brecht interpretations.

Ralf Geisler has been working as a freelance copywriter since 1982, advising large and medium-sized companies, political parties, municipalities and service providers in this context. His presentation "Output City" (2000) about the modernization of the budget management of the city of Frankfurt am Main aroused great local political interest. Since 2015 he has mainly devoted himself to writing and in 2018 published his first novel "3 Bestseller".

Geisler lives in Dietzenbach (Offenbach district), has been married to Heidrun Doris Geisler, b. Ende (* 1946) and has two children: son Raul Geisler (* 1970) and daughter Laura Geisler (* 1973).

Works

While he was still at school in Offenbach am Main, Geisler published the anthology "Schülergedichte" (1965) in collaboration with the Werkkunstschule (today: Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach ), which was awarded by the Hessian Minister of Culture. Under the influence of the absurd theater, he wrote the play "Two and a half dead", which was performed on the occasion of a school festival. Poems he had submitted to publishers met with encouraging approval ( Klaus Wagenbach , Elisabeth Borchers , Luchterhands Loseblatt Lyrik), but were never published.

In the bow water of the 68er protest movements he realized a cabaret program ("Splash into your own nest") together with the Offenbach cabaret group "Die Niete" ( Volker Rebell ) as well as a street play against the emergency legislation.

As part of his freelance work, Ralf Geisler contributed numerous book contributions as a ghostwriter for well-known personalities from the business world. He also wrote various speeches for leading politicians and business figures, such as the speech on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Deutsche Eisenbahn "With courage on new tracks" for the former CEO of Deutsche Bank AG Hermann Josef Abs . In the anthology "Controlling Change in Companies".

In 2018 Ralf Geisler published the novel "3 Bestseller", published by BoD - Books on Demand, Norderstedt. The action takes place in the advertising scene of the 1970s / 80s of the last century and describes the project of a former copywriter and two former copywriters to compete with each other and write their own book after the end of their professional careers.

reception

"Everything is real and original, the backdrop of the Frankfurt advertising scene of the 70s and 80s, which is described by the advertising legend Ralf Geisler ... What a wild, relaxed text package the 73-year-old Geisler dared to do."

Jochen Kalka, Editor-in-Chief W&V No 3/2019

"It is not a booklet, it is not a book, it is - to speak with Reich-Ranicki - a masterpiece." Stephan Passon, Düsseldorf

"Ex-JWT advertiser Geisler presents his debut novel. The book ... deals with the local Frankfurt and national German advertising scene of the 1970s and 80s."

Editorial office HORIZONT

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Interview magazine “pop” No. 10/1972 and No. 12/1972
2. ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung FAZ of June 24, 2000, No. 142, p. 74
3. ↑ ISBN 978-3-7528-6986-6
4. ^ "Students as Poets", Offenbach Post No. 298, December 23, 1965
5. ↑ Camilla Krebsbach-Gnath (Ed.) Controlling change in companies, factors for successful change management, cultural change and practical corporate communication, p. 135> published by the Frankfurter Zeitung “ Blick durch die Wirtschaft ” (FAZ), he controlled the contribution "Cultural change and practical corporate communication" <ref> 5
6. ↑ Jochen Kalka, Mad Man vom Main, W&V Werben & Sell, issue 3, March 6, 2019
7. ↑ Prof. Dr. Stephan Passon, Düsseldorf, Fachhochschule Dortmund , University of Applied Sciences and Arts, amazon review, May 29, 2019
8. ↑ HORIZONT 17/2019, April 25, 2019, p. 8