Sixty years of the future – time travel with the Frankfurt Book Fair
Over the past six decades, what began as a book show in St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt, has developed into the world’s largest international media exhibition. Today, the Frankfurt Book Fair is a key meeting place for the publishing industry, with over 7,000 exhibitors from more than 100 countries attending each year.
The days when the focus was on books alone are long over. The catchword of the 21st century is now “content”. Whether it be books, e-books, films, games, CDs or DVDs, the format is not what’s relevant anymore. 60 years of the Frankfurt Book Fair also stand for 60 years of media history.
The history of the Frankfurt Book Fair reaches back into the Middle Ages. Already in the 12th century, merchants were rolling their “book barrels” from afar towards the metropolis on the Main.
In 1949, the beginning of the Frankfurt Book Fair as we know it today, the exhibition stands consisted of two slanted wooden boards, each two metres long.
The Book Fair’s international orientation continued into the 1960s. In 1965, a German collective stand was organised by the Frankfurt Book Fair in Bologna, the first stand of its kind at an international book fair.
“Star authors” such as Hildegard Knef or Muhammed Ali added a touch of glamour to the Fair.
In the 1980s the international and professional aspects continued to develop.
In the 1990s, the phenomenon of digitisation could no longer be ignored.
While the Frankfurt Book Fair grappled with its economic and cultural roles in the 1990s, today it masters the balancing act between these responsibilities successfully.
Will bookstores one day be tourist attractions on the moon? Will printing presses be repurposed as playgrounds for children? Libraries turned into historical museums? Is this the future of the publishing industry? Opportunity or nightmare – what does the future hold?
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