75 years of Frankfurt Book Fair: World stage for protests

Even though there are documents mentioning that a book fair was held in Frankfurt as early as 1462, the modern version of the Frankfurt Book Fair took place for the first time in 1949.

Throughout its 75 years of history, one of the event's greatest achievements has been of building bridges through "book diplomacy." But these efforts have also at times sparked controversy.

'The illusion of a unified world'

Amid the Cold War, different Eastern Bloc countries — the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia — participated in the Frankfurt Book Fair for the first time in 1955.

That same year, East Germany also offered its first contribution to a collective stand called "Books from Inner-German Commerce."

As described by the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper in 1957, the book fair was at the time the world's only business event allowing "the illusion of a unified world" to be temporarily revived amid ongoing political rivalry opposing the West and the East: "On the book front in Frankfurt, there is no no-man's-land between the opponents; they have climbed from the trenches, shaking each other's hand without forcing a diplomat's smile."

The Iron Curtain nevertheless overshadowed the fair up until the year the Berlin Wall came down. In 1989, dissident Czech author Vaclav Havel won the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, but was not granted an exit visa to attend the ceremony.

The tide turned dramatically a few months later; by the end of that same year Havel had become the president of Czechoslovakia.

Clashes with the far right

There were also frictions within Germany's publishing scene.

In the early years of the fair, well-known figures from the book trade demanded to have neo-Nazi publishers banned from the event. But organizers decided that, as long as publishers were not found to have broken German law, they would not be excluded from the event.

Leni Riefenstahl, the film director famous for producing Nazi propaganda, signing photos at the book fair in 1976Image: picture alliance / Roland Witschel

 Although this remains a controversial issue to this day, the book fair's position hasn't changed, aiming to avoid censorship and promote freedom of expression.

That nevertheless led to many protests against right-wing publishers throughout the past 75 years of the book fair.

In 1955, different exhibitors teamed up to eject a neo-Nazi publisher from the exhibition, however acting relatively discreetly, "at midday, when things are quieter," states the Frankfurt Book Fair's website.

Other protests weren't as quiet.

Police had to intervene in 2017 when protesters disrupted a reading by Björn Höcke, the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) of the state of Thuringia, who, earlier this month, led the AfD to come out on top in the state's election.

The politician, who can legally be described as a "fascist" according to a German court, returned to the Frankfurt Book Fair for another reading — under police protection — the following year.

A platform for international causes

The Frankfurt Book Fair also started serving as a stage for demonstrations related to international issues in 1966, when Croatian exiles demonstrated against Yugoslavian exhibitors.

A year later, Greek publishers were confronted with students and booksellers protesting against the military dictatorship in Greece that came to power in April 1967.

Police used water cannons to disperse protesters at the book fair in 1968Image: picture alliance / dpa

1968 — a year marked by mass student protests in West Germany and worldwide — went down in the Frankfurt's history as the "Police Fair." That year, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade was awarded to Senegal's first president, Leopold Sedar Senghor, also renowned as a poet and cultural theorist. Protesters in Frankfurt denounced Senghor's increasingly authoritarian rule; demonstrations by Senegalese students had been violently crushed earlier that year.

In 1971, protests during the book fair focused on Iran, as attempts to overthrow the Shah were met with unprecedented violence.

1989: Iran disinvited following calls to kill Salman Rushdie

Like many other leftists, Indian-born British-American novelist Salman Rushdie denounced the Shah of Iran and was initially a supporter of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran. But 10 years later, the author became the most prominent target of Ruhollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran, who issued a fatwa ordering to kill Rushdie because of his novel "Satanic Verses," which is partly inspired by the life of Islamic prophet Mohammed.

The call for murder led book fair organizers to exclude Iran from participating for many years, including in 1998, when Rushdie made a surprise appearance at the opening ceremony, with strict security measures in place.

Iran has also boycotted the Frankfurt Book Fair on different occasions, including in 2015 when Rushdie was invited to give the opening address.

In 2023, Rushdie won the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade after surviving a stabbing the previous year.

Controversial 'Guest of Honor' countries

Inspired by the success of the Frankfurt Book Fair's focus on Indian books in 1986, the concept of the Guest of Honor country was officially introduced two years later, starting with Italy — which also happens to return in the spotlight role this year.

Turkey was invited as the Guest of Honor in 2008, promoting the diversity of its literature under the slogan "fascinatingly colorful."

Authors including Asli Erdogan, Elif Shafak and Sebnem Isiguzel stood out as strong new voices from the country.

But in the event's opening speech, Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's best-selling writer and laureate of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, criticized the lack of freedom of expression in his home country. Pamuk had previously tested the limits of freedom of speech in Turkey by making statements about the Armenian genocide and mass killings of Kurds, which led to lawsuits against him and his books being burned by angry mobs.

In his opening speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2008, Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk was critical of Turkey's censorship Image: Torsten Silz/AP/picture alliance

China's participation as Guest of Honor in 2009 triggered an even greater controversy.

A few weeks before the trade event, dissident Chinese authors who were to participate in a symposium linked to the book fair were disinvited by the organizers, under China's pressure. The authors nevertheless took part, leading many Chinese delegates to leave the symposium.

A display from China's pavilion in 2009: Its participation as Country of Honor sparked controversyImage: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel later opened the fair, accompanied by her Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, she addressed the dispute in her speech, pointing out that by accepting to take the Frankfurt stage, China was fully aware that "critical voices would and should be heard" at the event.

In that same opening address, she referred to the censorship she experienced in her youth in Communist East Germany, highlighting the democratic power of books: "This is one of the main reasons why books are censored or even burned in dictatorships. Books have a great potential for freedom."

The Frankfurt Book Fair is held from October 16-20, 2024.

Edited by Tanya Ott