Messe Stuttgart is a

convention center A convention center (American and British English spelling differences, American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a Convention (meeting), convention, where individuals and groups ...

next to Stuttgart Airport, 12 km south of

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is the ninth-biggest convention center in Germany. The new Messe Stuttgart site, completed in 2007, is right next to the A8 autobahn (highway). The center is accessible from Stuttgart Flughafen/Messe station on the local suburban railway network. Buses also travel to Messe Stuttgart from nearby Esslingen,

Göppingen Göppingen (; or ) is a town in southern Germany, part of the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg. It is the capital of the Goeppingen (district), district Göppingen. Göppingen is home to the toy company Märklin, and it is the birthplace ...

Reutlingen Reutlingen (; ) is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous Reutlingen (district), district of Reutlingen. As of June 2018, it had an estimated population of 116,456. Reutlingen has a Reutlingen University, univ ...

and

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

. There are plans to link Messe Stuttgart and Stuttgart airport to the proposed

Stuttgart–Wendlingen high-speed railway The Stuttgart–Wendlingen high-speed railway is an under construction German high-speed line being built as part of the Stuttgart 21 project. It runs from Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof via the Filder Tunnel to the Filder plain and from there to the Necka ...

between Stuttgart and Ulm by 2019 as part of the Stuttgart 21 Project.

Parking garage

One of the most striking features of Messe Stuttgart is its huge parking garage, which spans the A8 Autobahn and can accommodate 4,200 vehicles on five levels. Display rights for the 4-ton logo on both sides of the garage's bridge were sold to

Robert Bosch GmbH Robert Bosch GmbH (; ), commonly known as Bosch (styled BOSCH), is a German multinational engineering and technology company headquartered in Gerlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The company was founded by Robert Bosch in Stuttgart in 188 ...

, which paid around 20 million

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s for exclusive advertising space. The logo is the second-largest illuminated sign in the world and the biggest logo in the world after the unlit Hollywood Sign.'' (German) 'Bosch will ins Guinnessbuch der Rekorde.' '' (Bosch wants to make it into the

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

), ''Stuttgarter Zeitung'' Newspaper, 24 September 2007

Brief history

Before completion of the new site next to Stuttgart Airport, Messe Stuttgart had been based in the Killesberg suburb of

for more than 50 years. As nearby housing estates encroached on the old site's parking and roads, it was closed down to make way for public housing for seniors and apartments.

Criticism

Immediately after opening, Messe Stuttgart was plagued by a number of unexpected teething problems, ranging from faulty

barcode A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, Machine-readable data, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly ref ...

readers at the entrances to poor signage. Construction of the new site, originally approved in 1993, was subject to repeated delays. First, local farmers refused to sell their land after successful lobbying by nearby residents. After compulsory repossession of land was approved by the

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

State Government, demonstrations led to a string of court cases between landowners and the company hired to build the new center. An agreement was eventually reached between the local government and landowners amid cries from local residents that the farmers had "sold out" to politicians and had only gone along with lobbyists in the first place to maximize returns on the sale of land.

References

External links

* {{Official, http://www.messe-stuttgart.de
Messe Stuttgart maps (German)
1940 establishments in Germany Buildings and structures in Stuttgart Convention centres in Germany Event venues established in 1940 Tourist attractions in Stuttgart