Hannover Messe 2013
With Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chancellor Angela Merkel has been visiting German and Russian companies exhibiting at the Hannover Messe. The trade show is the "showcase of industry around the globe", declared Angela Merkel. Russia is this year’s partner country of the world’s largest industrial trade show.
Chanceller Angela Merkel opens the Hannover Messe
Photo: Bundesregierung/Steins
In her opening speech the Chancellor declared that no industrial company with any ambition can afford to miss the Hannover Messe. With the IT exhibition CeBIT which ended only a few weeks ago, the trade show is a "milestone in terms of future industrial developments".
About 160 Russian exhibitors
The Chancellor welcomed the fact that Russia is so well represented at the Hannover Messe in this German-Russian year. About 160 Russian exhibitors are presenting their goods and services. Never before have so many Russian companies attended an industry trade show outside their own country.
During her tour of the show she was able to appreciate the enormously wide spectrum of Russian businesses represented, the Chancellor reported. Economic cooperation with Russia is "reliable and running according to plan," she said. German-Russian trade chalked up all all-time record last year with a volume of 80 billion euros.
Comparable to the invention of the steam engine
"Integrated Industry" is the lead theme of this year's Hannover Messe
Photo: Deutsche Messe
Some 6,500 exhibitors, more than 50 per cent of them from outside Germany, will be at the Hannover Messe 2013 until 12 April.
Angela Merkel described current developments in industry as "revolutionary". They are comparable with the invention of the steam engine or mass production on a production line, she added. Industry is now going through a phase in which the "options opened up by software are merging with the capabilities of hardware".
This year Hannover Messe is spotlighting the increasing networking across all fields of industry with its lead theme "Integrated Industry". This also embraces the networking of all machinery involved in the production process.
In future machines should be able to spot any faults or deviations from the norm in the pieces they process. Or the piece itself will tell the machine via a code how it is to be processed. The tools will then adjust themselves automatically and thus optimise the ongoing manufacturing process, making production swifter and cheaper, and achieving higher quality products.
07.04.13: Before the official opening on Sunday, the Chancellor welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia is this year's partner country of the world's largest industrial trade show.
The Hannover Messe is "a milestone in terms of future industrial developments," declared the Chancellor in her opening speech.
The press await the arrival of Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin at the guest house of the Lower Saxony state government.
At dinner Angela Merkel spoke out in favour of an active civil society in Russia.
08.07.13: On Monday morning Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin laid a wreath at the Cemetry of Honour on the banks of the Maschsee.
The monument commemorates forced labourers from throughout Europe, including 154 Soviet victims, mudered in 1945 by the National Socialists.
The opening tour of the Hannover Messe began at the joint Russian stand, where some 160 Russian exhibitors are presenting their goods and services.
Volkswagen unveiled its new XL1, which does 100 kilometres on only 1 litre of fuel ...
... and the two heads of government climbed in to get a feel for the new model.
Festo presented its "BionicOpter" a robotic dragonfly which can manoeuvre in all directions, hover in mid-air and glide.
The ventilator manufacturer EBM-Papst shows the Chancellor and the President how one of their diffusors work.
Modern electronics for drive systems, efficient engines and industrial gearing systems were on show at the stand of Nord Drivesystems.
Economic cooperation with Russia is "reliable and running according to plan," stated Angela Merkel at the joint press conference.
Angela Merkel advocates an active civil society
With cooperation arrangements in the fields of research and training Germany would like to help improve the prosperity of the Russian people, stated the Chancellor. This will be more effective if there is an "active civil society". For this, the non-governmental organisations operating in Russia must be given "a decent chance".
Technology prize awarded
During the opening ceremony, Federal Research Minister Johanna Wanka presented the Hermes Award, Hannover Messe’s international technology award. This year it went to Bosch Rexroth AG.
"Every year here at the Hannover Messe we see just how innovative German companies are," said the minister.