Frankfurt Book Fair

Frankfurt Book Fair
Exhibition Hall in 2008
Status	Active
Genre	Multi-genre
Frequency	Annually, in mid-October
Venue	Frankfurt Trade Fair grounds
Location(s)	Frankfurt am Main
Country	Germany
Inaugurated	17th century modern era: 1949
Attendance	286,000
Website
http://www.book-fair.com

The Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF; German: Frankfurter Buchmesse) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented, and the second largest trade fair for books based on the number of visitors after Turin International Book Fair

It is held annually in mid-October at the Frankfurt Trade Fair grounds in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The first three days are restricted exclusively to trade visitors; the general public can attend on the last two.

Representatives from book publishing and multimedia companies from all over the world come to the Frankfurt Book Fair in order to negotiate international publishing rights and licensing fees. The fair is organised by a subsidiary company of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association. For five days more than 7,000 exhibitors from over 100 countries and more than 286,000 visitors take part. The Frankfurt Book Fair is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for international deals and trading.

The Frankfurt Book Fair has a tradition that spans more than 500 years. In 1454, soon after Johannes Gutenberg had developed printing in movable letters in Mainz near Frankfurt, the first book fair was held by local booksellers. Before the availability of printed books a general trade fair in Frankfurt had been a location for the sale of manuscripts. The initiation of a fair focused around printed books is attributed to Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer, who had taken over Gutenberg's printing operation after a legal dispute. The fair become the primary point for book marketing, but also a hub for the diffusion of written texts. In the period of the Reformation, the fair was attended by merchants testing the market for new books and by scholars looking for newly available scholarship. Until the end of the 17th century, it was the most important book fair in Europe. As a consequence of political and cultural developments, it was eclipsed by the Leipzig Book Fair during the Enlightenment. After World War II, the first book fair was held again in 1949 at the St. Paul's Church. Since then, it has regained its preeminent position.