The Foundation of the Trade Fair

In the early 1920s, Cologne�s Lord Mayor Konrad Adenauer was the driving force behind the foundation of a trade fair company in Cologne. For the head of the city, the planned trade fair constituted a part of an action plan to restore Cologne's supremacy in the Rhineland, which had been lost in the nineteenth century. Despite the difficult economic situation in the German Reich after the First World War, a majority of the city councilors voted in favor of this project in 1922. The construction of the fairgrounds was estimated to cost 150 million German marks. It took another two years before the first spring fair opened its gates on May 11, 1924 at the new K�ln-Deutz fairgrounds in the presence of then President of the Reich, Friedrich Ebert, and Chancellor of the Reich, Wilhelm Marx. This first fair event in Cologne was not just a complete success, it also established the reputation of the new fair as a top fair location.