Thinking around the corner

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Thinking around the corner (also: Eckstein-Rätsel ) is a crossword puzzle that has been published in Zeitmagazin, a supplement to the weekly newspaper Die Zeit , since 1971 .

The 2000th edition of the puzzle was published on January 28, 2010; since 1985 the puzzles have been published in a collected form as a book.

The online version of the puzzle was freely available for years until it became payable in 2020.

Structure of the puzzle

The Eckstein puzzle is one of the few “ cryptic ” (i.e. encrypted) crossword puzzles that appear in Germany. The difficulty of the riddle arises for many questions mainly from the fact that the question is not clearly formulated, but is encoded in the form of a word , syllable or letter game , a trick or joke question in such a way that the reader thinks “ outside the box” “Must in order to recognize the meaning and aim of the question at all. Often the reader is lured on the wrong track by linguistic or psychological tricks ( e.g. suggestive questions , using homonyms or familiar associations ). Once the meaning of the question is correctly understood, the answer is often very simple or even hidden in the question itself.

In addition to the encrypted questions described above, there are also those for which the question is relatively easy to understand, but the answer requires good to very good general knowledge, with timeless topics such as art and literature, history, geography or natural sciences being asked in particular. Current topics from sport, politics or entertainment are less common.

author

Thinking around the corner was designed by Udo Pini and Peter Karl. The current author of the puzzle appears under the pseudonym Eckstein . He is an individual whose name is kept secret. To mark the anniversary of 2000. puzzle an interview was published with it in which the first name Dieter was called, and that he was the original author since 1988 the successor, he during his second job as a night watchman of the time met. A change in the style of the puzzles in this succession was barely noticeable.

The pseudonym of the author Eckstein picks up the corner from the name of the puzzle, apparently a reference to the popular nursery rhyme in hide-and-seek ("Eckstein, Eckstein, everything must be hidden ...") and the reference to the pseudonym Zweistein of the puzzle author Thomas von Randow , who from 1963 to 2004 also created the logic puzzle Logelei for the puzzle section of the time .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Riddles with Eckstein - Questions to Eckstein. S. Fischer Verlag, accessed on January 31, 2011 .
  2. ↑ DNB 115228136 - Entries on the author Eckstein in the German National Library
  3. ↑ The best from 65 years , p. 46, a supplement to time No. 9 of February 24, 2011.
  4. ↑ The Riddle Maker - Interview by Susanne Gaschke. In: The time. January 14, 2010, accessed February 11, 2011 .

Web links