The Trade Fair Concept

The concept of a trade fair as developed by the Cologne Trade Fair Company as long ago as the 1920s, was now being implemented consistently and used as the benchmark for other West German fairs. Cologne's progress was clearly demonstrated in 1949 with the furniture trade fair (later called "Internationale M�belmesse"), which was followed in 1950 by the first "Photokina". One year later and for the first time since the war, an "Anuga" was held. From the "Hausrat- und Eisenwarenmesse" (household goods and hardware fair) arose "Domotechnica" and the "Eisenwarenmesse" (hardware fair). In parallel with this rapid expansion of the individual fairs in Cologne, the Deutz fairgrounds also grew. In 1956 the pre-war exhibition surface of 66,000 square meters was again achieved. That the Cologne trade fair company was by no means satisfied with its role as a national event organizer was emphasized in 1950 by the opening of the first foreign representative office in London. In the same year Cologne celebrated its re-acceptance into the International Fair Union (UFI), which it had co-founded in 1925. The strong growth of the fair increased the quality and the international flavor of both exhibitors and visitors. The further expansion of the fairground and investment in the new events, which were being raised to the standard of the leading industry fairs for certain sectors at an ever increasing pace, were thus possible. In the early 1960s the trade fair company also had 58 representative offices abroad.