Book Fairs, Publishers and Institutions in Germany

This year's Leipzig Book Fair takes place from 13 to 16 March. The focus is to be on experiencing books, since the Leipzig Fair not only aims to attract trade visitors, but a wide audience, especially young readers. More than one-fifth of last year’s visitors were below the age of 18.

A total of over 2300 exhibitors from 36 countries will be presenting their products on 63,000 sq of exhibition space. The fair has a number of focal themes: "Books for Children and Teenagers, "Education", "Comics" and, for the last eight years, "Audio-books". With more than 120 trade exhibitors and 100 events, Leipzig is Germany's most important and biggest audio-book event in Germany, according to Oliver Zille, director of the book fair.

There is a series of events called Leipzig hört (i.e. Leipzig listens) as well as the HörKules award for the year's most successful audio-book.

Radio plays also receive particular attention in Leipzig. Together with the Leipziger Hörspielsommer (i.e. Leipzig Radio Play Summer), a festival that has been taking place since 2003, the book fair has presented a radio play award for up-and-coming playwrights for the last five years. This year's theme is "Innerview". The winning radio play will be presented with an award at a public prize-giving event during the book fair. All the plays taking part in the competition are automatically entered for the sixth Leipzig Hörspielsommer 2008, a competition without any particular theme. This event offers authors an opportunity to present their first and previously unpublished productions to a large audience. For many, the trade fair and the Hörspielsommer are a springboard to having their play broadcast by a big radio station. In addition, a large number of events relating to radio plays and audio-books will be held under the motto Leipzig hört (i.e. Leipzig listens), in cooperation with radio stations and the exhibiting audio-book publishers.

One third of the exhibition area is devoted exclusively to the target group of children and young people, which is an increase of 10 percent compared to the previous year. There will be 300 events on comics alone, for example. There is even an internet portal devoted to comics, which is heavily frequented even outside the duration of the book fair. Focal themes are manga, anime, fantasy and role-play.

1,500 writers read from their works

Europe's biggest reading festival, Leipzig liest (i.e. Leipzig reads), which has been in existence for 17 years now, will be organised in parallel to the fair by the city, the trade fair, the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (i.e. German Publishers and Booksellers Association), the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk and others. Some 1,900 events featuring 1,500 writers are on the programme again this year. Internationally known authors such as Martin Walser, Elke Heidenreich, Thomas Brussig, or Andrea Maria Schenkel will read this year. Of course, there will be many international writers as well, among them Ken Follett, Rafael Chirbes (Spain), Slavenka Drakulic (Croatia), Roman Simic (Croatia), László Végel (Hungary) and Feridun Zaimoglu (Turkey).

For 17 years, there has also been the Jüdische Lebenswelten series (i.e. Patterns of Jewish Life). This year there will be readings and discussions with authors such as Arno Surminski, Amelie Fried and Gila Lustiger. Another aim is to present literature from Central and Eastern European countries. This year highlights Croatia.

Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair

A number of awards will be made during the book fair: the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair, accompanied by cash prizes of EUR 15,000 in each category, is awarded for outstanding new publications in German in the "fiction", "non-fiction and essays" and "translation" categories. The nominees include Clemens Meyer, Sherko Fatah, Jenny Erpenbeck and Jan Philipp Reemtsma. The public presentation ceremony takes place on 13 March.

The Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding, accompanied by a cash prize of EUR 15,000, goes to Dutch non-fiction author Geert Mak.

Something new to discover: Prosa-Prognosen (i.e. Prose Prognoses)

The Autorenwerkstatt Prosa (i.e. Authors Prose Workshop) of the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin LCB (i.e. Berlin Literary Colloquium) will be presenting its scholarship-holders to the public at the Leipzig Book Fair for the third time. In the Prose Prognoses event, eight young authors who were putting the finishing touches to their texts at the LCB last autumn will be presented. They received instruction from the famous writers Katja Lange-Müller und Burkhard Spinnen. The LCB is regarded as one of Germany’s best literary talent workshops. The writers who have completed a course at the Authors Workshop, which was set up in 1997, include some stars of contemporary German literature, such as Judith Hermann and Thomas Brussig.

"Big Brother" in Frankfurt

127,500 visitors, including over 30,000 trade visitors, attended the Leipzig Book Fair last year, to see new publications presented by more than 2,300 exhibitors from 36 countries. In the same year, Frankfurt had about 283,000 visitors, of whom 153,000 were trade visitors, and some 7,400 individual exhibitors from 108 countries. The fair by the River Main is the largest in the world, and compared with Leipzig, it is a very international venue for the publishing sector, with approximately a third of trade visitors coming from abroad. The Frankfurt event also claims to be the world's largest marketplace for rights and licences. In contrast, the Leipzig Fair is geared to the general public and offers more readings and atmosphere.

Traditional competition

Both German book fairs have already been in existence since the invention of printing in the fifteenth century, when foreign book traders offered their wares in Leipzig and Frankfurt. At the end of the fifteenth century, Leipzig had established itself as a lucrative marketplace for printed matter. Works from all over Europe were offered for sale there. However, Frankfurt was the book fair city of Europe until the seventeenth century, while Leipzig was ahead in the eighteenth century. One reason for this was the harsh censorship of the Imperial Book Commission that dominated Frankfurt at that time.

The first book fair after the Second World War took place in Leipzig in 1946, with 48 publishers in attendance. Frankfurt followed suit three years later. In the fifties, the West German city of Frankfurt once again became the centre of the German book trade, with 100 foreign publishers already attending the second fair in 1950. During the cold war, the Leipzig event was mainly significant as an East-West meeting point.

Leipzig still measures itself against Frankfurt, but in so doing has become extremely self-confident. As Martin Lüdke, jury spokesman of the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair, said: "The Leipzig Book Fair has become what Frankfurt used to be – everybody comes, because everybody comes."

Events of the Goethe-Institut at the Leipzig Book Fair: Public reading and talk discussion: New talents in European literature Thursday, 13.03.2008, 5 - 6.30 pm Mediencampus „Villa Ida“, Poetenweg 28 Under Discussion: Literary encounters in Middle- and Eastern Europe Friday, 14.03.2008, 4 - 5 pm ARTE Glashalle, Empore Stand 11 Discussion: Reading places in transition. Libraries in the context of international cultural work Friday, 14.03.2008, 4 – 5 pm Café Europa, Halle 4, Stand D505 Under Discussion: Literature as a bridge Saturday, 15.03.2008, 3 – 3.30 pm Glashalle, Empore Stand 11 Under Discussion:  „Yakın Bakış / Insights“ Sunday, 16.03.2008, 1 pm Glashalle, Empore Stand 11