Messe Berlin

History

You can also download the complete history of Messe Berlin (PDF, 35.9 kB) as a PDF file here.

The story of Berlin as a trade fair venue

• 1822The first industrial exhibition takes place. An era of organised exhibitions with Berlin as their venue begins.
• 1924The first "Große Deutsche Funkausstellung", nowadays known as the IFA, takes place. Construction begins of the Radio Tower and of the exhibition hall called Haus der Funkindustrie.
• 1926The first Green Week takes place. Opening of the Berlin Radio Tower.
• 1927The International Materials Exhibition is the largest fair in Berlin, attracting 250,000 visitors and hosting the largest conference on this subject at the Technische Hochschule.
• 1928The first ILA, the "International Aviation Exhibition", takes place in Berlin.
• 1935Construction begins of the Deutschlandhalle.
• 1943During the war the Berlin Exhibition Grounds and Deutschlandhalle are almost completely destroyed, and the Radio Tower suffers extensive damage.
• 1946Reconstruction of the exhibition grounds begins.
• 1947"Werte unter Trümmern", the first exhibition after the war, takes place on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds.
• 1956/
  1957Construction begins of the Palais am Funkturm, and the Deutschlandhalle is rebuilt.
• 1967The first ITB International Tourism Exchange takes place. Today this trade fair attracts more than 10,000 exhibitors from over 180 countries and territories, and is the world's most international trade fair.
• From 1970
  to
  1979Six new exhibition halls are built. Several companies merge to form AMK Berlin - Ausstellungs-, Messe-, Kongress-GmbH.
• 1979The International Congress Center ICC Berlin, Europe's largest and most modern conference venue, opens on 2 April.
• 1992AMK Berlin is renamed as Messe Berlin GmbH.
• 1993The first FRUIT LOGISTICA takes place.
• 1996The first InnoTrans, the International Trade Fair for Transport Technology, takes place.
• 2003Completion of the Main South Entrance.
• 2004The first Berlin Popkomm takes place.
• 2006AQUA UKRAINE and Water Sofia take place. Messe Berlin achieves positive overall results and its highest turnover to date, a figure of 168 million euros.
• 2007Debut of the ASIA FRUIT LOGISTICA in Bangkok, with the Asiafruit Congress, Asia's leading specialist conference, in support.
• 2008Four new trade fairs open in Berlin, and one in Singapore, with the ITB Asia making the expertise gained by the world's leading tourism trade show, the ITB, available to exhibitors and trade visitors.

Additional information on the history of Messe Berlin and its developments can be found at Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung.

Download Center

Online-Ticketing

Image brochure Messe Berlin

Image brochure Messe Berlin (PDF, 1.6 MB)

Customer magazine insightBerlin

insightBerlin is the magazine of Messe Berlin.

insightBerlin 01/2012 (PDF, 8.6 MB)

Environmental protection

Messe Berlin protects actively the environment.

Measures being undertaken by Messe Berlin (PDF, 2.7 MB)

Annual Report

Annual Report of 2010 (PDF, 1.3 MB)