ANOTHER HIGHLIGHT of
the anniversary year was an epis-
copal ecumenical service held in
St. Michael’s Church on 29 January
2015, the anniversary of the date
of the charter. Residents of Ham-
burg and visitors to the city were in-
vited to attend the public service at
which Hamburg’s first mayor, Olaf
Scholz, gave a talk. Emperor Charles
was also present – in the form of
Hamburg actor Michael Prelle, who
took the audience on a fascinat-
ing journey through time when he
read from the historical text award-
ing Hamburg the right to hold fairs.
The grand finale of the anniversary
year was an exhibition held in the
entrance of the town hall on the his-
tory of the Hamburg trade fairs and
conventions.
650 YEARS OF TRADE FAIRS
IN HAMBURG: MILESTONES
— THE BEGINNING
On 29 January 1365, Charles IV
granted a charter to hold trade fairs
to the City of Hamburg which helped
it to grow into one of Europe’s main
trading hubs.
— FROM 1765: CURTAIN UP FOR NEW
EXHIBITIONS
At the height of the Enlightenment,
the Patriotic Society of 1765 was es-
tablished as the Hamburg Society
for Promotion of the Arts and Use-
ful Crafts. In 1790, the society start-
ed staging exhibitions in the cellars
of the town hall with the aim of im-
proving the standard of living in the
city. The first exhibitions were at-
tended mainly by artists and there
was a disproportionately high num-
ber of artistic exhibits. Hamburg at
this time was a pioneer of the general
and commercial exhibition industry
in Germany.
— FROM 1800: KICK-OFF FOR BIG-TIME
TRADE FAIRS
In the early 19th century, commer-
cial trade fairs began to develop,
at which mainly reproducible sam-
ples of products were exhibited. The
new exhibition location was the city
theatre concert hall, which is where
the Hamburg State Opera is located
today. Although the commercial
exhibitions of Hamburg Craft and In-
dustry Products held in 1832, 1834
and 1838 were a success, disputes
about the future trade fair organisa-
tion and the Hamburg Fire of 1842
hampered further progress. It was
not until 1863 that another exhi-
bition was held, this time on the
Heiligengeistfeld. It was called the
International Agriculture Exhibition
and was initiated by Ernst Freiherr
von Merck. The ten-day event at-
tracted 200,000 visitors and exhibi-
tors from 14 countries, making it one
of the first major exhibitions.
✱ ✱ ✱
1365
Emperor Charles IV grants Ham-
burg the right to hold trade fairs
✱ ✱ ✱
SMM
Success story of a world-
leading trade fair made in
Hamburg
✱ ✱ ✱
1869
The first international garden
exhibition takes place in the
Alter Elbpark
42
Hamburg Messe und Congress | Annual Report 2014
ANNIVERSARY