New role models? The rise of the German influencers

Bianca Classen a.k.a. "BibisBeautyPalace" has been pretty successful playing the girl-next-door on social media. Her fortune is estimated at around €3 million ($3.6 million). That is her income from her YouTube videos (with almost six million subscribers), Instagram advertising collabs (with almost eight million followers), and her own beauty brand.

Younes Zarou is the most successful TikTok star in Germany. He has about 30 million followers on his two accounts. He uploads colorful videos with accompanying DIY videos on the rapidly growing platform. In March 2020, he entertained his followers live on TikTok around the clock for a month.

Pamela Reif was tried in 2020 on charges of hidden advertising and lost the case. The court declared that advertising must be marked as such on Instagram — even if it is only a gratuitous recommendation. This did not put a dent in the fitness influencer's popularity though, and her videos boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lisa and Lena Mantler started uploading lip-syncing and dance videos when they were 13 years old onto a platform called Musical.ly, which later became TikTok. They were a big hit, but withdrew from the platform in March 2019 due to security concerns — only to return in May 2020, much to the delight of their international fanbase.

Born Erik Range, Gronkh is a veteran of the gaming scene and one of its most successful influencers. He has had a YouTube channel since 2010, and for two years, he had the most subscribers among all German channels. He became known through the "Let's Play" videos, in which he filmed himself playing video games. Gronkh is also successful on the streaming channel Twitch.

Fashion, beauty and travel are all topics that go down well with Instagram users — a fact Stefanie Giesinger, who is one of the top German influencers in these areas, is well aware of. Crowned "Germany's Next Topmodel" in 2014, she's only occasionally seen on the catwalk these days. She has also founded her own sustainable fashion label.

This YouTuber's video, "The destruction of the CDU," which criticizes Angela Merkel's governing party, the CDU, created a stir in Germany in 2019, and was viewed over 18 million times. YouTube said it was the most-viewed video in Germany that year. This shows how relevant YouTubers like Rezo have become. In addition to political videos, Rezo also makes regular entertainment videos.

She is one of the most popular influencers who focus on sustainability. Marie Nasemann writes about sustainable fashion in her blog "Fairknall." She is one of the "sense-fluencers" who use their reach to discuss what they consider meaningful, important topics like sustainability, feminism or vegan nutrition.