The Hannover Messe (HM; "Hanover Fair") is one of the world's largest

trade fair A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and c ...

s, dedicated to the topic of industry development. It is organized by

Deutsche Messe AG Deutsche Messe AG (german: German Trade Fair Limited, links=no) is the operating company for the Hanover Fairground, based in the city of Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German s ...

and held on the

Hanover Fairground The Hanover Fairground (in German: ''Messegelände Hannover'') is an exhibition area in the ''Mittelfeld'' district of Hanover, Germany. Featuring 392,453 m² (4.2 million sq.ft.) of covered indoor space, 58,000 m² (624,306 sq ft) of open-air s ...

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, Germany. Typically, there are about 6,500 exhibitors and 250,000 visitors. The ''Hannover Messe'' started in 1947 in an undamaged factory building in

Laatzen Laatzen is a town in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated directly south of Hanover. Division of the town In 1964, the municipalities of Laatzen (nowadays about 22,000 inhabitants) and Grasdorf (3,500 inh.) were merge ...

, south of Hanover, by an arrangement of the British

military government A military government is generally any form of government that is administered by military forces, whether or not this government is legal under the laws of the jurisdiction at issue, and whether this government is formed by natives or by an occup ...

in order to boost the economic advancement of post-war Germany. The first fair was colloquially known as ''Fischbrötchenmesse'' (

Fischbrötchen A ''Fischbrötchen'' () (pl. "''Fischbrötchen''", lit. ''fish roll'') is a sandwich made with fish and other components such as fresh white or dried onions, pickles, remoulade, creamy horseradish sauce, ketchup, or cocktail sauce. It is commo ...

fair) due to the exemptions in

food rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

for the fair at this time. It proved hugely successful and was thence repeated on a yearly basis, contributing largely to the success of the Hanover fairground in replacing the then-

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

city of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

as the new major fair city for

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. The product portfolio includes building automation and technology, coating materials, air compressors, gas compressors, environmental technology, factory equipment, compressed air technology, micro-actuator systems, motors, scheduling software, refrigeration technology, robotics and additive manufacturing systems. In the 1980s, the growing information and telecommunication industry demanded the organizer ''

'' to split the fair.

CeBIT CeBIT was the largest and most internationally representative computer expo. The trade fair was held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. In its day, it was considered a barometer of cur ...

was a successful spin-off of the Hannover Messe. The Hanover Fair now covers all areas of industrial technology. The most recent Hanover Fair took place in May 30 to June 2, 2022, with Portugal as the partner country.

Hermes Award

The "Hermes Award" has been presented as a technology innovation prize at the Hanover Fair since 2004. It is considered to be the most prestigious award in industrial R&D. The prize promotes the innovative ideas in the market-ready products and services for industry. The patrons of the award are the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German State of Lower Saxony. Renowned German Professor

Wolfgang Wahlster Wolfgang Wahlster (born February 2, 1953) is a German Artificial Intelligence researcher. He was CEO and Scientific Director of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and full professor of computer science at Saarland University, ...

was one of the initiators of the award and for many years was the Chairman of the Hermes Award Jury.

Partner Countries

Hannover Messe has changed over the years, from a local trade fair into a global event. In the 2000s, a partner country model had been introduced, so that a single country is the leading one during the certain year. At the official trade fair opening event, the partner country is responsible to present an extensive artistic performance connected to the country's history and culture. Apart for this, the partner country shows the selected, top innovations at the national stand and many other companies from this specific country attend as exhibitors. * 2006 dates: 24–28 April (Partner Country: India) * 2007 dates: 16–20 April (Partner Country: Turkey) * 2008 dates: 21–25 April (Partner Country: Japan) * 2009 dates: 20–24 April (Partner Country: Korea) * 2010 dates: 19–23 April (Partner Country: Italy) * 2011 dates: 4–8 April (Partner Country: France) * 2012 dates: 23–27 April (Partner Country: China) * 2013 dates: 8–12 April (Partner Country: Russia) * 2014 dates: 7–11 April (Partner Country: Netherlands) * 2015 dates: 13–17 April (Partner Country: India) * 2016 dates: 25–29 April (Partner Country: United States) * 2017 dates: 24–28 April (Partner Country: Poland) * 2018 dates: 23–27 April (Partner Country: Mexico) * 2019 dates: 1–5 April (Partner Country: Sweden) * 2020 dates: 13–17 July (postponed from 20–24 April) digital edition due to COVID-19 * 2021 dates: 12–16 April (Partner Country: Indonesia) digital edition due to COVID-19 * 2022 dates: 30 May – 2 June (Partner Country: Portugal)

References

External links

* {{Coord, 52.3269, N, 9.8092, E, source:wikidata, display=title Trade fairs in Germany Recurring events established in 1947 Tourist attractions in Hanover Economy of Lower Saxony