A City of Surprises
Germany's financial capital offers a stunning skyline and fascinating cultural insightsFrankfurt is the Germany's commercial and financial hub and is easily accessible from Birmingham airport. The Book Fair is one of the city's main attractions, drawing thousands of visitors to Frankfurt every October.
The Frankfurt Book Fair is the key event for publishers, agents and authors around the globe and the world's biggest book fair. The exhibition is open to the general public for the last two days and provides avid readers with a unique opportunity to see and perhaps speak to, some of their favourite authors.
The origins of the Frankfurt Book Fair go back over 500 years, shortly after Johannes Gutenberg invented the Gutenberg Press, the pre-cursor to today's modern printing press. Publishing has changed a great deal since those days however, and today the event is not only attended by publishers and authors but by film producers and agents, trade associations, printers and translators. The fair is the event when the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade is awarded, an international literary peace prize.
Every year, the Book Fair also a nominates a focus of interest which is explored through readings, discussion programmes, theatre, television and radio events. Often these focus on the literature of a particular country which allows that country to showcase its literary tradition.
