Kurt Albert: red dot inventor, climbing pioneer & lateral thinker [biography]

Kurt Albert (1954–2010) was one of the greatest and most ingenious climbers and mountaineers of all time. A biography about the German climber was published on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his death.

Born in Nuremberg, counted Kurt Albert to the pioneers of the international free climbing movement, who in the Frankenjura had one of their centers. With the invention of the Red dot Kurt Albert wrote climbing history.

His keen mind, his openness to people and ideas, his thirst for adventure and his wit made him the focus of a sporty and social subculture whose influences went far beyond climbing and mountaineering itself.

With it, traditions, values ​​and thought patterns also changed, climbing became a popular sport, the economic and aesthetic significance of which is clearly visible in many parts of society today.

Kurt Albert took life with a sense of humor. (Image archive Kurt Albert)

Numerous first ascents

With numerous first ascents, Kurt Albert left his mark in the mountains of the world. Even more remarkable than his alpine achievements is the consistency with which he maintained his lifestyle over the decades. Kurt Albert was not just a free climber - above all and first of all, he led a free, independent life. 

The multiple award-winning author and filmmaker fills with his biography Tom duration a memory gap that Kurt Albert's sudden accidental death tore in September 2010. His book will appeal to all of those who Climbing and Mountaineering not just as a sport, but as an attitude towards life.

The author Tom Dauer in an interview with Actiontalk TV

From minute 14.34:XNUMX onwards Action Talk TV in the news broadcast Beta on the topic of red point climbing, Kurt Albert and speaks with the book author.

About the author

Tom Dauer, born in 1969, feels connected to Kurt Albert in many ways. The literary and political scientist wrote, among other things, a book about Reinhard Karl, whose texts Kurt Albert also admired. For his standard work “Cerro Torre - Mythos Patagonia” he lived there for over a year and shared a wooden hut with Kurt Albert for weeks in the Fitz Roy base camp. As an alpinist, author and filmmaker he is and remains independent - an ideal that he shares with Kurt Albert.

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Credits: Picture material archive Kurt Albert

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