Frankfurt Book Fair

The Frankfurt Book Fair is the largest book fair in the world, both in terms of the number of visitors and the number of publishing companies presenting their books at the fair. The fair allows international printers and publishers to cooperate. Publishers, agents, booksellers, librarians, academics, illustrators, service providers, film producers, translators, professional and trade associations, institutions, artists, authors, antiquarians, software and multimedia providers can participate in the fair.

The Frankfurt Book Fair has quite ancient origins. It was first held in 1473 and has been systematically organized since 1574. The Frankfurt Book Fair is traditionally associated with the book printing house founded by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz (near Frankfurt). Since then, Frankfurt has been the book capital of Europe.

The fair became the region's main place for the sale of books and a center for the distribution of texts. At the time of the Reformation, the fair was frequented by merchants checking for new books and scholars seeking new knowledge.

Until the end of the seventeenth century, the Frankfurt Book Fair was the most important marketplace for books. But in 1632, during the Enlightenment, the Leipzig Book Fair became the new center. After World War II, the Frankfurt Book Fair was again available to the public in 1949.