Kurzgesagt
Kurzgesagt (/ˌkʊərtsɡəˈzɑːkt/; German for "In a nutshell") is a German animation studio founded by Philipp Dettmer. The studio's YouTube channel focuses on minimalist animated educational content, using the flat design style.[1] It discusses scientific, technological, political, philosophical and psychological subjects.[3] Narrated by Steve Taylor, videos on the channel are typically 4–16 minutes in length, with many of them available in German through the channel Dinge Erklärt – Kurzgesagt.
![]() Kurzgesagt's logo, a minimalist representation of Earth | |||||||||||||
Motto | In a Nutshell | ||||||||||||
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Formation | 2013 | ||||||||||||
Founder | Philipp Dettmer | ||||||||||||
Type | Privately held company | ||||||||||||
Purpose | Animation studio | ||||||||||||
Location | |||||||||||||
Owner | Philipp Dettmer | ||||||||||||
Staff (2021) | 43[1] | ||||||||||||
Website | kurzgesagt.org | ||||||||||||
YouTube information | |||||||||||||
Channel | |||||||||||||
Years active | 2013–present | ||||||||||||
Genre |
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Subscribers | 14 million[2] | ||||||||||||
Total views | 1.26 billion[2] | ||||||||||||
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Updated: February 06, 2021 | |||||||||||||
Aside from their German channel, they began creating videos for their Spanish channel En Pocas Palabras – Kurzgesagt near the end of 2019.[4] While their English channel mostly finances itself with donations from their viewers and individual sponsorships, the German channel is financially supported by Funk, the online presence of German public broadcasting, and the Spanish channel is sponsored by Wix,[4] in addition to a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
With over 14 million subscribers,[5] the studio's English channel was ranked as the world's 428th (noxinfluencer.com) or 430st (socialblade.com) most subscribed as of February 6, 2021.[6][7]
History
![](../I/Patrizia_Mosca_COO_%2526_Executive_Producer%252C_Kurzgesagt_2018.jpg.webp)
The Kurzgesagt YouTube channel was created on July 9, 2013, shortly after the founder, Philipp Dettmer, graduated from Munich University of Applied Sciences.[8]
The first video, which explained evolution, was published two days later. 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.[1]
In 2015, Kurzgesagt was commissioned to do a video on the end of disease for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Thereafter, it worked with the foundation on several other commissions, including videos about motherhood mortality.[9]
The channel has been part of the radio network Funk of ARD and ZDF since September 28, 2017.[10][11][12]
In 2019, Kurzgesagt became the first German channel to surpass 10 million subscribers on YouTube.[13]
In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurzgesagt uploaded a video on their three channels about how the human body reacts after contracting COVID-19, and how effective are the measures in evading SARS-CoV-2.[14] The English version has over 28 million views, making it the most viewed video on the channel.[15] The German version has been viewed around a million times, and the Spanish version has 285 thousand views. In December 2020, fellow YouTuber Marques Brownlee honored Kurzgesagt, with his "Streamys Creator Honor" award in the 10th Streamy Awards.[16]
Name
The name derives from the German kurz-gesagt (IPA: [ˈkʊɐ̯ts gəˈzaːkt]),[17] which, when taken literally, translates to "shortly said". The English equivalent of this phrase would translate to 'in a few words' or 'in a nutshell', the latter being used as an English subtitle for the channel's name.[18]
See also
References
- "About". Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
- "Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell". YouTube. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
- Bauman, Kat (May 9, 2014). "From the Super Adorable Science Files: Videos by Kurzgesagt". Core 77. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
- "How to Make a Kurzgesagt Video in 1200 Hours". YouTube. February 16, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
- "Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell - YouTube". www.youtube.com.
- "Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell YouTube Channel Analytics and Report". noxinfluencer.com. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
- "kurzgesagt YouTube Stats, Channel Statistics". socialblade.com. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
- "Youtube: Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell knackt als erster deutscher Kanal die 10-Millionen-Marke". t3n.de (in German). Retrieved November 3, 2019.
- "Kurzgesagt". facebook.com. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
- Germany, Braunschweiger Zeitung, Braunschweig (November 18, 2020). "funk-Format "Kurzgesagt" fragt: "Brauchen wir Atomkraft, um den Klimawandel zu stoppen?"". www.braunschweiger-zeitung.de (in German). Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- "Acht Minuten Welterklärung - brand eins online". www.brandeins.de. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- "So hat Kurzgesagt-Gründer Philipp Dettmer mit Erklärvideos eine Milliarde Views gemacht". Daily (in German). June 17, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- Weil, Andrew (December 5, 2019). "YouTube's 2019 Rewind focuses on the basics after 2018 video fiasco". Wusa9. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
- "A Look at How the Virus that Causes COVID-19 Infects People". Nerdist.
- "Video explainer on the coronavirus has more than 17.5 million views". CochraneToday.ca.
- Hale, James (December 12, 2020). "Here Are Your 2020 Streamy Award Winners". Tubefilter.
- Kurzgesagt. "Can You Trust Kurzgesagt Videos?". Retrieved March 12, 2019 – via YouTube.
- Holgate, Matilda (2020). "5 YouTube channels to keep you learning". University of Canberra. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
External links
- Official website
- Kurzgesagt on the website of Funk