Frankfurt Book fair opens to professional trade visitors

The 69th Frankfurt Book Fair opened its gates to industry and press representatives on Wednesday.

On Friday, the world's largest trade fair for books will be open to the general public.

Annually hosted in Frankfurt, this year's fair includes 7,300 exhibiting parties from 100 countries which represent their literary products. Around 270,000 visitors are expected to attend the event over the course of five days.

Wednesday's opening theme at the fair is "self-publishing", an increasingly common trend amongst writers. Additional debates will be held about freedom of opinion and the potential limits of tolerance.

The honorary guest at this year's Fair is the French-speaking world, attracting around 200 writers from francophone countries to the literary event. As a consequence, the fair's inaugural speech was held together by French president Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday night.

Macron used his opening speech to urge Germany to join his country's efforts at reforming the European Union, while Merkel praised the "close friendship and solidarity" which the two neighboring countries had come to share.