Overview

• Organizers expect well over 200,000 visitors, more than 1,000 authors and exhibitors from about 92 countries, with public entry expanded to a full Friday and book sales permitted from day one.
• Guest of Honour Philippines presents a wide cultural program with about 60 works newly translated into German and a pavilion conceived as a walkable island group, while some authors cancelled over Germany’s Gaza policy.
• At the opening press conference, Börsenverein chief Karin Schmidt-Friderichs called for tighter AI regulation, fair pay for training data and accountability for platform algorithms she warned are undermining democracy.
• Fair director Juergen Boos framed the Messe as a global debate forum, pointing to sessions such as Maria Ressa’s discussion on security with former NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.
• Industry reporting highlights strain on small literary presses, including recent takeovers and the planned shutdown of Berenberg Verlag, as well as reprint bottlenecks that have left Book Prize winner “Die Holländerinnen” unavailable for weeks.