The Leipzig Book Fair opens its doors to the public this Thursday (10.00 am). Until Sunday, 2,044 exhibitors from 54 countries will be presenting their new book-related products. Numerous authors from Germany and abroad can be experienced live at the fair and the accompanying reading festival "Leipzig liest".
The opening ceremony of the fair the previous evening was marked by protests against the cultural policy of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Wolfram Weimer (non-party). He was booed by parts of the audience and his speech was repeatedly interrupted by heckling. Several hundred people had gathered outside the venue for a demonstration.
On Thursday evening, Weimer is expected to take part in a panel discussion on freedom of expression at the German National Library. His decision to remove three left-wing bookshops from the list of nominees for the German Bookstore Prize due to "findings relevant to the protection of the constitution" was one of the issues that sparked criticism. Weimer said that, in his view, the state must reject all extremists equally: Right-wing, left-wing, Islamists.
