Hannover Messe

The Hannover Messe (HM; English: Hanover Fair) is one of the world's largest trade fairs. It is held on the Hanover Fairground in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany. Typically, there are about 6,500 exhibitors and 250,000 visitors.

Poster for the 1947 fair

Siemens at the 2014 exhibition

The Hannover Messe started in 1947 in an undamaged factory building in Laatzen, south of Hanover, by an arrangement of the British military government in order to boost the economic advancement of post-war Germany. The first fair was colloquially known as Fischbrötchenmesse (Fischbrötchen fair) due to the exemptions in food rationing 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 city of Leipzig as the new major fair city for West Germany.

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.[1]

In the 1980s, the growing information and telecommunication industry demanded the organizer Deutsche Messe AG to split the fair. CeBIT was a successful spin-off of the Hannover Messe.

The Hanover Fair now covers all areas of industrial technology.

• 2006 dates: 24–28 April
• 2007 dates: 16–20 April
• 2008 dates: 21–25 April
• 2009 dates: 20–24 April
• 2010 dates: 19–23 April
• 2011 dates: 4–8 April
• 2012 dates: 23–27 April
• 2013 dates: 8–12 April
• 2014 dates: 7–11 April
• 2015 dates: 13–17 April
• 2016 dates: 25–29 April
• 2017 dates: 24–28 April
• 2018 dates: 23–27 April
• 2019 dates: 1–5 April
• 2020 dates: 13-17 July (postponed from 20-24 April)