Gert Winkler

Gert Winkler
Advertising
Born	(1942-09-05)5 September 1942 Linz, Austria
Died	6 January 2016(2016-01-06) (aged 73) Wien, Austria
Nationality	Austrian
Known for	Advertising, Publishing, Filmmaking

Gert Winkler (5 September 1942 – 6 January 2016) was an Austrian photographer, creative director, editor, film producer and director of commercials.

Winkler became known as creative director of the agency GGK Wien, where he worked for around twelve years. In 1979 he founded the Zeitgeist magazine Wiener. In 1987 he founded Tale Filmproduktion, now run by his son Moritz Winkler.

He has been an honorary member of the Creativ Club Austria (CCA) since 2012.

After dropping out of law school at the University of Vienna, Gert Winkler joined a shipping company in Bremen in 1964 and sailed to America as a machine cleaner on a cargo ship. In young years he was also a boxer. Back in Austria, he wrote his first short film, Vladimir Nixon, directed by Michael Pilz in 1969, starring Lui Dimanche. For his script, he won the City of Vienna's Screenplay Award. This initial success led to various screenwriting assignments for ORF, the Austrian State-TV – such as Das Lied von Hofer, directed by Rainer C. Ecke in 1971, and Damenwahl (Ladies' Choice), directed by Franz Novotny in 1972. At the same time, Winkler worked as a photographer on the experimental architecture of Haus-Rucker-Co and Coop Himmelb(l)au as well as the experimental group Missing Link.^[1]

In 1975, Winkler applied to the advertising agency GGK Wien as a photographer, but was ultimately hired as creative director. After a brief stint at GGK Düsseldorf, where he was responsible for, among other things, the relaunch of the Ernte 23 cigarette brand, he was entrusted with expanding the agency's network's Austrian branch. Back in Vienna, he won the accounts of Palmers underwear and Römerquelle mineral water, two traditional Austrian companies, both market leader in their segment. He was also responsible for legendary campaigns for Kodak, BP, Fiat and Meinl Kaffee.

Then, GGK Wien was located in Villa Vojcsik, an Art Nouveau villa.^[2] One of his mottos as an advertiser – and in his other endeavours – was: "Fear is not a good advisor."^[3]

In 1979, Gert Winkler, together with Michael Satke and Günther Lebisch, founded the first so-called zeitgeist magazine, Wiener. However, after just four issues, the project failed, and WIENER was relaunched in May 1980— this time with Hans Schmid as financier,^[4] Michael Beran and Lo Breier as art directors, Rudolph J. Wojta as editor-in-chief, but again with Gert Winkler as the creative driving force.

In 1985, Winkler won Austria's first and so far only Lion in the category Advertising Film at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes for his commercial for Austria Tabak MEN (directed by Franz Novotny) for GGK Vienna. After his successful campaign for chancellor Franz Vranitzky (SPÖ) in the Austrian National Council elections of 1986, Gert Winkler decided to quit advertising. Together with Ernst Mican he founded Tale Filmproduktion. Thereafter, Gert Winkler has worked as a director and producer for commercials. In 2009, he handed the company over to his son.

He was married to Marietta Winkler (1949–2022), a social worker who later became a psychotherapist, and they had two sons.^[5] The family lived in Landstraße, the 3rd district of Vienna.

• Bronce Lion (Cannes) for MEN (cigarettes)
• Prix Nation (Cannes) for Gösser

Plus several state prizes and CCA awards.

• "90 Prozent der Agenturen leben in Angst", interview with Der Standard
• In memoriam GERT WINKLER * 05.09.1942 † 06.01.2016