The Frankfurt Book Fair opened on Tuesday evening in the presence of the Spanish royal couple.
At the start of the book show, at which Spain is presenting itself as guest of honour, King Felipe VI, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Prime Minister of Hesse Boris Rhein (CDU) and Frankfurt Mayor Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg (Die Grünen) spoke at the Messe Frankfurt Congress Center. .
She represented Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) on the day his trial began.
After two emergency versions during the corona pandemic, the book fair is what it has always been, said its director Juergen Boos: “the most important meeting place for the international publishing industry”.
The book show is organized by the German Book Trade Association.
His head Karin Schmidt-Friderichs spoke of a fair
which "almost feels normal again" and "already far exceeds our expectations in every respect".
More than 4000 exhibitors will be in Frankfurt, twice as many as in 2021, from large American corporations to small publishers.
It is imperative that the fair draws attention to the book.
September 2022 was the fifth month in a row with a decline in sales for the German book industry, said Schmidt-Friderichs.
The turnover of the bookstores is almost nine percent below that of 2019: "I know of bookstores that don't know whether they will come through the winter." After all, the exhibitors are still just a little more than half of the stock of 2019 , from 95 countries.
That's almost as many as before the pandemic.
At that time, 300,000 visitors were counted, a record.
This year, Boos expects a significantly smaller number.
Across all cultural sectors, one sees around a third fewer visitors, which will hardly be different at the fair.
Nevertheless, he is confident about their future: "We need this place where the whole world talks about books for five days."