Germany's Leipzig Book Fair opens doors to visitors

The Leipzig Book Fair opened its doors to visitors on Thursday, with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on hand to tour the halls and discuss democracy with noted German writers Ingo Schulze and Anne Rabe.

The book fair in the east of the country is Germany's second-largest, after the Frankfurt Book Fair. Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave remarks on Wednesday evening at a ceremony to mark the opening of the fair, which will run through Sunday.

A total of around 100 events are planned as part of the book fair, with 41 authors scheduled to join as guests, including fiction writers Marc-Uwe Kling, Ingrid Noll and Arne Dahl.

There is also a comic and manga event, as well as an antiquarian book fair, taking place on the Leipzig Book Fair exhibition grounds.

This year's fair is the first under the leadership of new director Astrid Böhmisch. Oliver Zille, who had headed the fair for many years, unexpectedly retired last year.

This year, the Netherlands and the neighbouring Belgian region of Flanders are presenting their common linguistic and cultural area as joint guest "country," under the motto "everything but flat."

At the opening ceremony on Wednesday night, the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding 2024 was awarded to the German-Israeli philosopher Omri Boehm.