Final report Read, listen, communicate with one another

LEIPZIG BOOK FAIR

(17 – 20 March 2016)
Leipzig, 20 March 2016
Final report
Read, listen, communicate with one another:

260.000 visitors at the Leipzig Book Fair

Between 17 and 20 March, 260.000 visitors (2015: 251.000), 195.000 (2015: 186.000) of which on the Leipzig fairgrounds, celebrated the word in all its varieties in Leipzig. Overall 2.250 exhibitors from 42 countries (2015: 2.263 from 42 countries) presented a sea of words, images and sounds at the Leipzig Book Fair, the Manga-Comic-Con and the reading festival “Leipzig liest” (Leipzig reads). Authors, illustrators and musicians invited the audience to join them in 3.200 events at 410 locations on the fairgrounds and in the Leipzig City centre to meet and exchange ideas. The Leipzig Book Fair presented itself with a strong professional program as the most important springtime meeting place for the business.
“Books and their makers as guiding media were in higher demand than ever. Readers and listeners sought and found facts, analysis and experiences as well as opinions on the current public debates, particularly regarding immigration and integration,” says Martin Buhl-Wagner, president and CEO of the Leipziger Messe (Leipzig Trade Fair). Book Fair director Oliver Zille adds: “Free speech cannot be taken for granted, place of birth is a coincidence and the often invoked European values are constantly questioned. The Leipzig Book Fair once again proved to be a place for dialogue and a stronghold of freedom of speech.”
Heinrich Riethmüller, Chairman of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, explains: “The book sector has sent a strong and a political message from the Leipzig Book Fair into the world: freedom of speech and of the press are necessary conditions for a free and pluralistic society. The conversations at the fair stands showed this as well: apart from the presentation of the diverse spring program, the discussions focused on freedom of speech as a human right, perspectives on immigration and the book sector’s task to be a platform for discussion.”
Europe and its values were at the focus right from the start with the presentation of the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding 2016 at the opening of the Leipzig Book Fair. Historian Heinrich August Winkler was presented with the award for his epochal work “Die Geschichte des Westens” (“The History of the West”). Saxony’s state Premier Stanislaw Tillich and Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung spoke on the occasion of the opening. Both expressed their concern about rising xenophobia and propensity to violence within German society and called for a peaceful discourse. Premier Tillich called on everyone’s individual responsibility and urged that it was time to take a stand against those trampling on European values. With their cooperation “For word and freedom”, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association and the Leipzig Book Fair also called upon the guests of the opening ceremony to take a stand for freedom of speech.