Ask Willi.

For 25 years, there is the German edition of the knowledge game "Trivial Pursuit". A man knows almost all the questions: Willi Andresen has around 150,000 of them out. In the case of quiz shows on TV grabs him of ambition - but he would never be invited.

 

Willi Andresen not read the morning newspaper. He reads four, sometimes five. Every morning he leaves his apartment, goes to the kiosk, and it comes with a stack of newspapers published. What then follows at the breakfast table, called the 56-year-old "scan": He is looking into the articles for answers to questions that have yet to be made. Namely, from him.

Birger Menke
Asker Andresen: A lonely dream

Andresen is the author of the German Trivial Pursuit output. While quiz shows such as
"Who wants to be a Millionaire?" All editorial work, he writes, since 1986 alone, all questions and answers for the German edition.

He had advertised initially as a writer of questions about music. After studying journalism Andresen had as a music critic for magazines and newspapers work. But he missed the deadline of the sample questions - "I had too much to do," he remembers. Nevertheless, he sent ten questions go. And the makers of Trivial Pursuit were thrilled.

But not boring questions

Approximately 150,000 questions have been written, he estimates Andresen, without the unpublished "because you can once again beat out 20 percent." Every one to two years, Trivial Pursuit will be renewed, times, half of the 3600 questions was exchanged, the next time it's all the questions. In addition, special editions, such as "Eating and Drinking" or the Olympic Edition.

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Initially worked as a journalist continues Andresen and incidentally as a game writer, "then I noticed that the search for questions about time-intensive." Eight to ten hours a day, he works and creates up to 30 questions. Previously it had been longer, sometimes 100, when the deadline approached. But now Andresen encounters again and again in his search for facts on which he has already asked.

The selection is a balancing act: The questions should not be too difficult, but not too easy, too obvious. "By the time one develops a sense of this." Whether he is the right mix has taken then checks his proofreader, he also tests the new questions to Quizabenden with friends.

The Tutor is otherwise, but especially for the language. It was a little art, a question to the right. "They should not be boring, for example, I would not ask: 'Who was Goethe Forenames with' but 'What Goethe Forenames received from his parents'."

Rumsurfen, through newspapers, television

Some mistakes unterliefen him despite Tutor and test rounds: "A question aimed at the first set, seemingly deaf to the Indians in the movie 'One flew over Kuckucksnest' says." Andresen wrote: "Hmm, tastes good." Not true. On the day when the game came on the market, fell to him on the error - too late. Today he smiles when he tells them, but the moments in which he notes mistakes, he describes with Hanseatic temperament: "Not good."

What the Indians really says Andresen know no more from the head (the big Bromden spoke, see
Video at YouTube: "Thank you" and then "Mmmm, Juicy Fruit"). He could by far not remember all the answers, so good his memory was not. And yet, the one who asked if, in conversations with friends, a knowledge question in the room. Often he can make the motion to Google or save Brockhaus.

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Andresen worked at home, he lives with his wife in a beautiful apartment in the upmarket suburb of Hamburg Harvestehude. In his study are twelve shelves high on the walls, is thousands of CDs, DVDs and reference works such as the Brockhaus encyclopaedia or Kindlers literature. It was a lonely job, he says. Previously, Andresen visited libraries more often, "then the search was much harder." But he came out more often, among people.

The Internet had the books and magazines are not completely replaced, but the main search today to find the net instead. "I communicate most of the time only with the computer," says Andresen. He says this is not negative, on the contrary - "that's the beauty of the Job: rumsurfen and access to all sorts of issues get."

Author meetings in Barbados - sadly passé

Two sources must Andresen its clients at any question. Since last year, one of which must
His wikipedia. Andresen was with authors from other countries joined together and the Internet as a source lexicon enforced. Ever Maintain the 15 Schreiber, contact and meet in free intervals. "The colleague in England, for example, presents many questions about the royal family, which is of course not," says Andresen. If you have questions, they could hardly benefit from one another, spending the differed significantly from each other in part.

Until a year ago found the meeting the issue poets sometimes take on Barbados, where was the seat of the company, the two Trivial Pursuit inventor had founded. But then, bought the American toy manufacturer Hasbro the license good for 80 million U.S. dollars. The inventors can now finally be millionaires to retire, Andresen and his colleagues need to be paid to Caribbean travel renounce the last meeting was held in Essen.

Never mind, there Andresen. A holiday without a laptop is unthinkable for him anyway. "When traveling, watching television, reading the newspaper - I always think whether what I see or read may be recoverable." If he
Shows knowledge and even watch the answer to a question did not know he beat them immediately, "the ambition always grabs me." But even attend the event, which he would not. Anyway, he is sure: "The would never invite me anyway."

One called him a man who should pay for his appearance on "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" prepared. Andresen should phone Deuce. He decided against it, "the man I was not geheuer". He would simply cancel it, but he made him an offer: He would be there when they share the profit, "fifty-fifty." "The man put it on course," recalls Andresen and pleased today thievish: No. Just to be a simple answer was.

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