Kurzgesagt (; German for "In a nutshell" or "in a few words") is a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
-made
animation
Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...
and
design studio
A design studio or drawing office is a workplace for designers and artisans engaged in conceiving, designing and developing new products or objects. Facilities in a design studio include clothes, furniture art equipment best suited for design work ...
founded by Philipp Dettmer. The studio's
YouTube channel
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most v ...
focuses on
minimalist
In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...
animated educational content, using the
flat
Flat or flats may refer to:
Architecture
* Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries
Arts and entertainment
* Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch
* Flat (soldier), ...
and
3D design style. It discusses
scientific
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
,
technological
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
,
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
,
philosophical
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
, and
psychological
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...
subjects. Narrated by Steve Taylor, videos on the channel are typically four to sixteen minutes, with many of them available in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
through the channel ''Dinge Erklärt – Kurzgesagt,'' their
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
channel ''En Pocas Palabras - Kurzgesagt,'' and some of their videos are also available in
French,
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
,
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
,
Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese (' ), also Portuguese of Brazil (', ) or South American Portuguese (') is the set of varieties of the Portuguese language native to Brazil and the most influential form of Portuguese worldwide. It is spoken by almost all of ...
,
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
and
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
.
With over 19 million subscribers and over 160 videos, the studio's original English language channel was ranked as the world's 198th most subscribed as of 8 November 2022.
History
The Kurzgesagt YouTube channel was created on 10 July 2013, shortly after the founder, Philipp Dettmer, graduated from
Munich University of Applied Sciences
The Munich University of Applied Sciences (HM) (german: Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften München) was founded in 1971 and is the largest university of applied sciences in Bavaria with about 17,800 students.
The Munich University of Appl ...
. The first video, which explained
evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
, was published two days later with the voice of Steve Taylor, who still serves as commentator as of 2022. The videos were more popular than expected, and in six years the channel went from a project worked on during Dettmer's free time to a design studio with over forty employees. The studio has even received commissions and grants from a number of established, independent institutions.
In 2015, Kurzgesagt was commissioned to create a video on the end of disease by the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was ...
.
This video about the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, called ''The Coronavirus Explained & What You Should Do'' and released in March 2020, was posted on all three of their channels and shared how the human body responds to
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
and how effective the measures in evading
SARS-CoV-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...
. The English version has over 87 million views, making it the most viewed video on the channel. A study published in ''
Visual Resources'', said that the video "is an example of an aesthetically compelling explanation of the biological processes of a Covid infection" and it "includes fantastical depictions that convey the message in a more comprehensible straightforward manner."
Outside of the grants from patrons, Kurzgesagt, at least the German branch, has been primarily financially supported by the network Funk of
ARD and
ZDF
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
since 28 September 2017.
Kurzgesagt has been the recipient of several awards. In 2019, Kurzgesagt became the first German channel to surpass 10 million subscribers on YouTube. In December 2020, fellow YouTuber
Marques Brownlee honored Kurzgesagt, with his "Streamys Creator Honor" award in the
10th Streamy Awards.
''Immune: A journey into the mysterious system that keeps you alive''
In November 2021, Kurzgesagt announced the release of their first book, ''Immune: A journey into the mysterious system that keeps you alive'', written by Phillip Dettmer, the channel's founder.
A publication by the
Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations
Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations (FRFG), also known as Stiftung für die Rechte zukünftiger Generationen (SRzG), is a German think tank and activist group focused on intergenerational justice and sustainability. Established in ...
, a German think tank, recommended the book among others for books on the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, describing it as "full of stories of invasion, strategy, defeat, and noble self-sacrifice," in introducing the complex world of the
immune system
The immune system is a network of biological processes that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, as well as cancer cells and objects such as wood splinte ...
.
Daniel M. Davis, the Head of Life Sciences and Professor of Immunology at
Imperial College London
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
, described it as "the feast we have been waiting for" due to the public interest in the mechanisms of the immune system (such as
Antibodies
An antibody (Ab), also known as an immunoglobulin (Ig), is a large, Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The antibody recognizes a unique molecule of the ...
,
T cells
A T cell is a type of lymphocyte. T cells are one of the important white blood cells of the immune system and play a central role in the adaptive immune response. T cells can be distinguished from other lymphocytes by the presence of a T-cell re ...
, and
B cells
B cells, also known as B lymphocytes, are a type of white blood cell of the lymphocyte subtype. They function in the humoral immunity component of the adaptive immune system. B cells produce antibody molecules which may be either secreted or ...
) during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were "rarely discussed outside of research labs and scientific talks." In the book, the author acknowledges the feedback and help of a Dr. James Gurney, Professor Thomas Brocker, the director of the Munich Institute for Immunology, and Professor Maristela Martins de Camargo of the
University of São Paulo
The University of São Paulo ( pt, Universidade de São Paulo, USP) is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian public university and the country's most prestigious educational institution, the best ...
.
Reliability of videos
While some commentators have praised Kurzgesagt's videos for their reliability and fact-checking,
some of their earlier work received criticism. In 2016, the
Art Libraries Society of North America
The Art Libraries Society of North America (also known as ARLIS/NA) was founded in 1972. It is an organization made up of approximately 1,000 art librarians, library students and visual resource professionals.
Activities
ARLIS/NA organizes activ ...
criticized the studio's occasional lack of credible sources and professional consultation, and use of emotive language.
In 2019, Kurzgesagt released a video saying that while they now had all their arguments fact-checked by experts, they had not always done so in the past. They added they were deleting two of their videos from 2015 that failed their current standards, including their video titled "Addiction".
A collaboration between Kurzgesagt and journalist
Johann Hari
Johann Eduard Hari (born 21 January 1979) is a British-Swiss writer and journalist who has written for ''The Independent'' and ''The Huffington Post''. In 2011, Hari was suspended from ''The Independent'' and later resigned, after admitting to ...
, "Addiction" came to be one of the most popular on their channel at the time, despite also being one of their most criticized.
The video was accused of misleadingly summarizing the conclusions of the contentious
Rat Park experiments;
Kurzgesagt acknowledged they had presented one argument as fact, and had not considered other theories on the matter.
See also
*
CGP Grey
CGP Grey is an American-Irish educational YouTuber, podcaster, and live streamer who creates short explanatory videos on subjects including politics, geography, economics, sociology, history, and culture. In addition to video production, Grey ...
*
Vsauce
Vsauce () is a YouTube brand created by educator Michael Stevens. The channels feature videos on scientific, psychological, mathematical, and philosophical topics, as well as gaming, technology, popular culture, and other general interest subj ...
*
Tom Scott
*
Veritasium
Derek Alexander Muller (born 9 November 1982) is an Australian-Canadian science communicator, filmmaker, and television personality, who is best known for his YouTube channel Veritasium. Muller has also appeared as a correspondent on the Net ...
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell
Education-related YouTube channels
YouTube channels launched in 2013
German YouTubers
Science-related YouTube channels
Patreon creators
English-language YouTube channels
Educational and science YouTubers