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Trade Fairs in Poznan
While many foreign visitors to Central Europe may be unfamiliar with Poznan, businesspeople involved in foreign trade are likely to be more than aware of the city. That's because Poznan is Poland's trade fair capital with the title justified by the country's biggest fair grounds and Poznan host to the biggest and best fairs in Poland each year.
Poznań’s rich trading tradition can be traced back as far as 1254 when King Przemysław I granted special privileges to traders. Over the following centuries Poznań developed this trading tradition to the point where, in 1917, local merchants decided to develop a specialised fair institution. This idea reached fruition on May 28, 1921,
Poznań’s rich trading tradition can be traced back as far as 1254 when King Przemysław I granted special privileges to traders. Over the following centuries Poznań developed this trading tradition to the point where, in 1917, local merchants decided to develop a specialised fair institution. This idea reached fruition on May 28, 1921,
when the first Poznań fair took place. Since then, the Fair’s fortunes have risen and fallen according to the political and economic changes that periodically moved through Poland and Europe.
After Poland re-emerged on the map of Europe in 1918 with the advent of the second Polish Republic, the Poznań fair was instrumental in helping to re-integrate economic activities. It contributed to the task of creating a new Polish market and in demonstrating to the outside
world Poland’s readiness for economic and commercial cooperation. It also helped with the complex task of unifying the three areas of Poland separated during the partitions and in which different fiscal, monetary and legal systems operated.
In 1928, the city of Poznań and the Poznań International Fair held the Universal National Exhibition, which showed the world the achievements of the first decade of the new
Polish state. Over 4.5 million people visited the fair, including delegations from many foreign countries. The Poznań International Fair was one of the few fairs that managed to survive the great economic crisis of 1929-1932 and by the outbreak of WWII it was considered one of Europe’s leading fairs.
However, the war had a catastrophic effect on the International Fair complex. The Germans used the buildings for storage and to manufacture airplane parts. On Easter Sunday 1943, a day when no Poles were at the Fair, the British Royal Air Force bombed pavilions 5 and 8 as Stanisław Laskowski, the Fair’s president, looked on. Pavilion 5 was
rebuilt in the 1970s with funds from the British Department of Trade and Industry.
In 1946 rebuilding started on the same land and the first post-war fair was held under the title Fashion and Home (Odzież i dom). The Poznań International Fair started anew in 1947 but was once again forced to close - this time, in the years 1951-54, because of the atmosphere created by the Cold War. It was only
in 1955, with the multi-product Poznań International Fair exhibit, that the Fair started cooperating with foreign countries again.
