Max Hammel is a creative director and video artist working across culture, media, politics and brands, with a background in theatre, film, branding and multimedia performance.
creative direction
From 2025 to 2027, Max serves as Creative Director at Schauspiel Köln, one of Germany’s major publicly funded theatres, where he led the theatre’s rebranding and the development of the SPL KLN brand through a dedicated in-house creative agency established for this purpose.
Max also served as Creative Director for the Bierpartei, helping transform what began as a meme-driven online project into a distinct political brand. Together with Marco Pogo, he created its visual and video language and helped shape the public persona of Dr. Marco Pogo as a political figure.
video art
From 2020 to 2025, Max worked at Volkstheater Wien as Artistic Director of the Video Department, where he led the department’s artistic work and integrated multimedia into live productions, concerts and performances.
Working as a video artist, Max has collaborated with acclaimed figures such as Paul McCarthy, Werner Herzog, Jonathan Meese, Calexico, Danger Dan, Lydia Haider and Claudia Bauer.
In 2024, Max was named Video Artist of the Year by Theater Heute. In 2025, he received the German Theatre Prize DER FAUST in the Media category as part of the digital artist team behind RCE #RemoteCodeExecution.
Max has taught video art at Temple University, Japan Campus, the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, and the University of Arts Linz.
political engagement
Previously, Max worked as Creative Director for the Bierpartei in Austria, contributing to several political campaigns. Its founder, Dominik Wlazny, placed third in the 2022 Austrian presidential election. The Bierpartei won representation in Vienna’s district councils in the 2020 municipal elections. Max himself served as a district councillor in Vienna’s 15th district from 2020 to 2024.
commercial work
Since 2010, Max has worked as a director and cinematographer, creating commercials for clients such as McDonald’s, T-Mobile and Aldi; music videos for artists including Danger Dan, TURBOBIER and Aut of Orda; and narrative social media content for brands and institutions such as Yamaha, Bierpartei and Volkstheater Wien.
He collaborated with international agencies such as VICE, Dentsu and Jung von Matt, as well as investigative journalism organizations including Correctiv and Dossier, and broadcasters such as ZDF and ORF. Max filmed across diverse locations including Germany, Portugal, France, Brazil, China and Japan.
His work has been presented at festivals, exhibitions and cultural events including the Diagonale in Graz and projects in the context of the Biennale de Lyon.He represented Austria in the Film category at the Young Lions competition in Cannes in 2017 and 2018.
education
In 2016, Max earned a degree in Feature Film Screenwriting from ESEC Film School in Paris.
IMPRESSUM
Max Hammel / Cologne (GER)
contact: info@maxhammel.com
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