There can be little doubt that a child who produces sculptures of hippos which her designer-father takes to be gallery artworks certainly has creative potential. But Jette Joop never wanted to be an artist, for “fear of the boundless freedom”, as she herself says. So the daughter of Germany’s most famous fashion designer opted to stick to more concrete things. Creative, but within a given framework: “So many functional items can also be beautiful”, she says. And in the meantime there is almost nothing that the 36-year-old has not redesigned in this spirit: jewellery, shoes, clothes, a shower, even three pre-fab houses. Like her father, Wolfgang Joop, Jette Joop has long since made a label of her name, JJ, and in doing so has collaborated with many partners along the way, including a mail-order company and a chain of jewellery shops. She calls this “cross-over in design”, and it is certainly an ingenious business idea of the qualified industrial designer. And what is her credo? To unite comfort and modernity – at reasonable prices. In most cases, the tall blonde models her creations herself. Typical Jette Joop. After all, she has the glamour gene, is often a guest at society parties, yet also exhibits Prussian diligence – also a family tradition. Now Jette Joop has begun passing on her knowledge about the shape of things as a professor at the Hochschule in Essen. One of the tasks she set her students was to design the “refugee camp of the future”. The Red Cross was highly enthusiastic about the ideas presented and these were publicly displayed in 2004. Creativity, not as an end in itself, but applied in the interests of a good cause – also typical Jette Joop.

He usually leaves the cinema or theatre before the show ends. Books don’t fascinate him. He flips hurriedly through magazines. And he surfs through TV programmes within seconds. Things that don’t get straight to the point bore him. Jean-Remy von Matt (right) is an advertising specialist, Germany’s most creative. His stories are told in three words and within 30 seconds – with a stunning effect. He made BMW’s Mini (“Is it love?”) into an object of desire and, with the claim “Geiz ist geil” (tight turns people on), sparked off a public debate. The Jung von Matt agency, founded by the advertising specialist together with his lawyer partner Holger Jung in Hamburg in 1991, is now Germany’s leading engineer of the imagination as prizes and top rankings go to show. And in competition with 3000 agencies, the Hamburg team takes a good share of the economy’s 30-billion euro advertising budget. But the road to success started with hard work. “Excellence entails exertion,” says von Matt, who is respected for his ideas and feared for his merciless perfectionism. A pencil and a piece of paper, coffee and chewing gum, PC and headset (for seclusion) are his utensils. Shutting himself in with his thoughts to find the right idea, that’s his method. And “provocative, fun advertising” is the goal. Simple and direct, entertaining, surprising – and charming. “Every evening I’m an uninvited guest in the homes of innumerable people,” says von Matt. “And the least you can expect from an uninvited guest is that they are charming. So charming that in the end you’re pleased they came. And that’s our task.”

When a new film is emerging in Marcus Nispel’s mind’s eye, he is simply unapproachable. He sits in his office in the Hollywood hills drawing circles, squiggles and words on the pages of the script, while his assistant types the notes into a computer. The 40-year-old creates award-winning images whose transpositions into film are even on permanent exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art. These include music videos of more than a dozen No. 1 hits, including songs by George Michael (“Killer”) and Janet Jackson (“Runaway”), but also advertising films for Audi, Nike and Coca-Cola. In his 15-year career Nispel has made more than 1000 advertising clips and music videos – the result of an almost record-breaking work mania. This year he made his Hollywood debut, with the remake of the horror classic the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (TCM). “When I directed for MTV people were afraid of me: they would have a cut every two seconds,” says the Frankfurt-born film-maker. “But I persuaded the producers that that was just a prejudice.” This approach is the secret of Nispel’s success. Just try something new, and “don’t bother about the correct way to go about making a career for yourself, just insist on your idea against all opposition.” And so Nispel went his own way, from a Frankfurt advertising agency to Hollywood, and was able to convince his US colleague Michael Bay, who produced TCM. After all, he was determined to have the director from Germany for his project: “I have always admired Marcus’ work. He has a great vision, and when it comes to shooting he’s incredible.” Sounds as if Marcus Nispel will be doodling a lot more in his office in the future.

Her father, an engineer, would have been happier if she had used her mathematical talents. But she didn’t. Despite this Corinne Wasmuht still spends the day engrossed in meticulously accurate work. The day starts off well when it begins in her Berlin studio and finishes there too, around 3 a.m. “I prefer to work until I drop.” At the moment this doesn’t happen all that often. Corinne Wasmuht, 40 years old, was born in Dortmund, grew up in Argentina and is a shooting star in the art scene. But success has brought the outside world into her studio: interviews, photo appointments, exhibition preparations. In the autumn she shows her work at the famous Haus Esters in Krefeld – in the company of Beuys, Christo and Rauschenberg. She sees her pictures, large-format works of brilliant intensity, as “windows to a parallel world”, unreal space in real space, painstakingly conceived microcosms. For her, painting is a process that lasts for many months. Her works start off as a collage-like collection of images surrounding themes such as “dust”, “violence” or “cosmos”. Ideas for pictures then begin to take shape in her mind. “Some ideas recur time and again, and these are the ones I turn into a picture.” It’s a patient, slow process. She paints many layers of oil colour onto wood to create that unique “inner glow”. This is the originality that has made Corinne Wasmuht famous – and has since shortened her working day. One of her pictures now hangs in the Federal Chancellery – for an artist, that’s comparable to a knighthood. It’s even convinced her father as well.

What does creativity taste like? Like virgin territory, sweet and hot, crisp and creamy. Like orange preserves with star aniseed and coriander salad, like red mullet in Bergamotte oil with croquettes made of potatoes and Sobrassada sausage. Like chocolate and lavender. An adventure course for the palate. Cheeky, courageous, surprising. “I cook the way I am”, says Tim Raue, the chef at Restaurant 44 in Berlin’s Swissôtel. “I have corners, I have sharp edges, I have a big mouth.” A genuine Berliner, an avant-gardist with a chef’s hat, a passionate perfectionist. He wants his cuisine to taste of zest for life. Tim Raue belongs to the generation of young cooks who have given German cuisine a new direction with imagination and often regionally inspired dishes. Many gourmets consider this 30-year-old to be the most innovative chef around. Although Raue likes to peek into the pots of other top cooks, especially Spanish ones, he would never copy someone else’s ideas. He simply has far too many of his own. They usually come to him while he’s doing something else, because “basically I am always thinking of cooking”. Raue would also have liked to become a commercial artist. But because he wanted to stand on his own two feet at the age of 16, it had to be a “bread-making career”. It was only after his tough apprenticeship that he discovered how creative cooking can be – assuming you are in charge of the kitchen. Then you can combine liquorice ice cream with goose foie gras crème, pepper crust and oranges. The tester from the often vicious Gault Millau (a German restaurant guide) liked the daring composition so much that he gave it 16 points (out of a possible 20, a total that has never been reached). Raue’s fan club is currently speculating about the next rung on his career ladder: a Michelin star. But they will have to wait a while, because new stars won’t be awarded until December.

He’s back again. In Frankfurt, his home town. In the Cocoon, his new club. At the turntable, in his element. In the words of the international press Sven Väth is “Germany’s only popstar”, and the “Godfather of Techno” in the eyes of his fans. The most heavily booked DJ in the world rose to fame through his spectacular appearances in Frankfurt airport’s Dorian Gray disco, at the Berlin Love Parade and at top clubs in New York, Rio and Tokyo. Now he has fulfilled his dream: to have his own club. The CocoonClub is probably the most ambitious project in the international club scene. With a financially powerful partner, avant-garde space, sound and multimedia designers and a top-notch creative chef Väth opened a techno temple in Frankfurt’s east end this summer. The club includes a bar and restaurant that sets high standards in club culture. So up there he stands, or rather performs, with his turntable, celebrating his job and electrifying the people on the dance floor. The turntable is his instrument, the disc case is his secret. He doesn’t play songs. He composes sounds and rhythms, techno beats, house tunes and electro vibes to produce moods and atmospheres. “Sometimes it’s so much on target that even I’m amazed”, says Väth. How does he do it? “I give the people the feeling that I’m there for them. They give me the feedback, the confidence to do the thing I’m good at. And this process generates a whole series of new sensations. But it’s something you can’t just deliver on demand. It has to evolve.” Sometimes it comes “like a flash of lightning” amidst the techno thunderstorm. And that’s when the “magic moments” occur that make Sven Väth unique.

At 33 years of age Florian Illies could be taking things easy. He could have bought a house in Tuscany and be sitting there sipping red wine and relaxing in the Italian sunshine, living happily off the royalties from his bestsellers “Generation Golf” and “Generation Golf 2”. With his sharp observations, and a wink of the eye, he erected a memorial to the 1980s and to those who were teenagers then. In Illies’s opinion kids of the consumer culture are not only disinterested but spoilt as well. But according to the man who records the spirit of the times, today’s 30 to 40-year-olds also have high aesthetic values and an interest in art. So he and his partner, Amélie von Heydebreck, took the logical next step and, in the midst of the German media crisis, founded a new magazine in spring 2004. They’ve called the art magazine “Monopol”, in which the two journalists print what “we would enjoy reading ourselves”. For Illies, who has already headed the “Berliner Seiten” in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” and the arts section of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”, this journalistic enterprise is only logical: “The crisis has given people the feeling that there’s virtually no room for creativity within the media. This called for some counter action.” Now Illies observes even more closely how his generation, that is his readership, is developing. And to realize this dream he has founded a publishing house. Courage and vision – yes, these too are characteristics of the “Generation Golf”.