Every year, in mid-October, Frankfurt hosts the world’s largest book fair, which can rightfully be considered one of the most outstanding events dedicated to book art. The history of the Frankfurt Book Fair dates back more than 500 years, and its foundation is associated with the first printer Johann Guttenberg, who lived in the neighboring city of Mainz from Frankfurt. According to some studies, the first fair of printed books was held here in 1473 and since 1574 it has been organized on a permanent basis. Until the XVII century, the Frankfurt Book Fair was the most important in Europe, but then, for various reasons, it lost its importance. The recent history of the exhibition began in 1949 thanks to the initiative of the Exchange Union of German Booksellers and several major West German publishers, and since then it has been held annually in the center of Germany, becoming the largest book forum on the planet. Today, the fair has its own unique image, carefully preserves its traditions and instantly reacts to new trends in the book world, which is undoubtedly the key to its success.

The organizer of the Frankfurt Fair is Frankfurter Buchmesse GmbH, a subsidiary of the Union of Booksellers, the director since 2005 and to this day is Jurgen Bos. The venue is the Messe Frankfurt exhibition complex, one of the largest in the world, which is located in four interconnected pavilions with an area of about 170 thousand square meters.

The plan of the Frankfurt Fair 2022.

In the early 1990s, the fair, with the support of the German Foreign Ministry, began to open permanent representative offices abroad — bureaus or centers of German books. The first such center was opened in 1993 in Moscow, in 1998 — in Beijing and New York, and in 2008 — in New Delhi.

First of all, the Frankfurt Fair is designed for professionals: publishers, agents, writers, translators, journalists, representatives of libraries, institutes, museums come here to establish contacts with colleagues from other countries, acquire the rights to publish popular texts, get acquainted with typographic innovations. Therefore, out of the seven days that the fair lasts, the first three days the doors of the exhibition center are closed to ordinary visitors and the fair works exclusively for the professional community.

The main purpose of the fair is to promote German literature abroad, as well as to promote cultural exchange and cooperation between publishing houses of different countries, expand business contacts, and demonstrate various technological innovations in the publishing business.

The book is the main exhibit at the book fair, but not the only one. In addition to books of various subjects intended for display, sale and assignment of rights, periodicals, posters, postcards, maps, paintings, sheet music, reproductions, and other types of printed products, as well as audiobooks and e-books are exhibited here. Currently, copyrights for books that are both successful and only conceived by the author or publisher are being sold and bought at fairs, joint publishing agreements are being concluded, books published and being prepared for publication are advertised.

In addition to the exhibition, seminars, round tables, concerts and other cultural events are organized within the framework of the fair. A number of prizes are awarded at the fair, including the German Book Prize (similar to the British Booker Prize; awarded by the Booksellers' Union since 2005 for the best novel of the year in German). During the fair, its director Jurgen Bos holds meetings with well-known journalists, publicists and public figures from different countries, where topical political and humanitarian issues are discussed. This is one of the most popular formats of the forum, it is called “World Reception”.

The fair is constantly updated. So, in 2015, the location of the stands was changed, taking into account the process of merging the book markets of a number of countries. English-language expositions are concentrated in the center of the exhibition areas. Stands representing Asian and Arab countries were also combined; books from Spanish-speaking countries, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe were brought together; German-language literature was singled out separately. In 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the fair had to quickly switch to digital format. 4 million euros were allocated from the federal budget for the development of the online version of the Frankfurt Book Fair, and the investment paid off: the density of the schedule of professional and public events was in no way inferior to the live format: only one fair week in the calendar of events accounted for 3644 events. At the same time, the number of visitors has increased significantly: if last year a total of 302,267 people attended the events of the fair (144.5 thousand of them — professional visitors), then thanks to numerous digital formats, the audience coverage of the most popular events reached 1.5 million people from 124 countries (the number of professional visitors to the fair increased to 200,000). The online format has become an integral part of accelerated publishing processes.

Traditionally, one of the countries is present at the fair every year as an honorary guest. Since 1976, one of the countries has received the status of an honorary guest and has become the main participant of the exhibition. The purpose of this format is to introduce a wide range of readers and professionals to the literature of this country, to attract the attention of translators, etc. The guest country is provided with central platforms on preferential terms. According to statistics, 120-150 thousand people visit the exposition of the guest of honor during the fair. As a rule, it is opened by the first persons of the state. The guest country carries out the development of the exhibition program and its financing independently. To obtain this status, the interested State must submit an application. The choice is made on a competitive basis by the Supervisory Board of the Exchange Union of German Booksellers. Usually the guest of honor is determined three years before the start of the fair. Russia became the guest of honor in 2003, when the Year of Russian Culture was held in Germany. The Russian delegation consisted of 130 writers, in addition, the country was represented by 200 publishing houses, including such large ones as AST, Olma-Press, Enlightenment, Eksmo.

The Frankfurt Fair plans to open its doors to visitors at 19-23 October of 2022.