75th anniversary: What the trade fair means for the city

By Peter Budig

Dr. Andrea Heilmaier is Economic and Science Advisor for the City of Nuremberg. Her department has facts and figures on the International Toy Fair and its significance for the Franconian city. So she knows exactly what she is talking about when she says: "As the world's largest leading trade fair for toys, the Nuremberg International Toy Fair is closely linked to the brand development of Nuremberg as a trade fair and commercial city."

Traces of childhood
Almost all trade fair visitors admit that they felt a special curiosity, even anticipation, when they visited the Toy Fair for the first time. Those who come from the Nuremberg area often speak of a longing they have felt since childhood. This is because this trade fair for professionals is not just about goods. It conveys emotions, and although most visitors are toy professionals, they find themselves emotionally transported back to their childhood.
 

First memories: stuffed animals in the laundry basket
It's no different for Dr. Andrea Heilmaier, born in Nuremberg in 1978. She still remembers one of her first conscious encounters with a toy: "I was very young, maybe three years old, when a school friend of my father's came to visit. He had brought a Playmobil flower shop with him, similar to a toy shop, but with flowers in the display, in the typical Playmobil design. He gave it to me as a present and I was completely blown away by the little shop." Another emotional home of her childhood, the politician recounts, were stuffed animals: “There's a photo of me sitting in my mother's laundry basket, which was filled to the brim with all my stuffed animals.”

Andrea Heilmaier, her husband, and their two daughters, now aged 15 and 18, are a family who love to play games. Their favorites are board games such as "Das verrückte Labyrinth" (The aMAZEing Labyrinth) or the new card game "Deduckto." Heilmaier's favorite childhood game, "The Treasure of the Incas," and the fast-paced "Rummikub" are also on the family's game shelf at home.

Enthusiastic about law and local politics
Heilmaier studied law with great enthusiasm. She worked passionately for many years as a public prosecutor and later as a judge. At the same time, she was always politically active. Her political home is the CSU. At the age of 24, she was elected to the Fürth City Council, marking the beginning of her involvement in local politics. "I always had a strong desire to shape politics," says Heilmaier. This desire ultimately led her to Nuremberg City Hall. Today, she considers her role as Economic and Science Advisor to be one of the most fulfilling challenges of her professional life. She talks about how much she appreciates being able to actively promote the development of her hometown in direct exchange with business, science, and the urban community. "I love my job as an advisor," she emphasizes. "It is a great privilege to bear responsibility for Nuremberg and to transform ideas into concrete projects for the future."
 

As economic advisor, she made her first visit to the International Toy Fair in 2024. 
"Excited" is how she describes her feelings before her first visit to the 2024 Toy Fair as an economic advisor. There, a huge wooden toy shop from the Ore Mountains reminded her of her childhood days. Another personal highlight was her visit to Hall 1: an entire exhibition hall filled with dolls and stuffed animals. Experts are not surprised by the large selection, as "over 30% of exhibitors present their products exclusively in Nuremberg," according to the trade fair website.
 

Nuremberg and the Toy Fair
"Nuremberg is the toy city; yesterday, today, and tomorrow," says economic advisor Heilmaier, who has some facts and figures on the economic benefits from the economic department. 
Of the more than 10,000 people employed in toy manufacturing in Germany, 5,300, or more than half, work in the metropolitan region. Within Germany, Nuremberg is one of the top locations in the MICE segment (trade fair and convention industry: meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions). This brings purchasing power to the city and secures jobs.

The pull effect of the toy fair is also reflected in the figures (from 2025): 2,362 exhibitors, 57,500 trade visitors from 126 countries, 175,000 square meters of exhibition space. The leading trade fair attracts international media coverage, not only from the trade press, but also from television stations and correspondents from all over the world who experience and report from Nuremberg. Considering that two-thirds of overnight guests are business travelers, it is easy to see what the trade fair means for the hotel and hospitality industry. Other sectors (trade fair construction, interpreting services, taxi industry, etc.) also benefit enormously. On January 23, 2015, the Office for Communication and City Marketing announced: "Overall, the International Toy Fair generates an influx of purchasing power of 100 to 150 million euros in the Nuremberg metropolitan region."

The Spielwarenmesse is the mother of all trade fairs in Nuremberg. It strengthens Nuremberg's position as an internationally renowned trade fair location. Its success and the successful trade fair projects of AFAG paved the way for Nuremberg's expansion as a trade fair city: both the construction of the exhibition center in Langwasser and the founding of NürnbergMesse in 1974. Since then, the trade fair company has built up a diverse trade fair profile over 50 years with its own events in the fields of building & construction, electronics & security, process technology, retail & consumer goods, and social & public. BioFach, Embedded World, and Fensterbau Frontale stand out as world-leading trade fairs. And NürnbergMesse maintains good relations with guest organizers Spielwarenmesse eG and AFAG, as well as many others who rent the exhibition center for their events. 
 

Urban development and the Spielwarenmesse
The Department of Economic and Scientific Affairs is responsible for a wide range of tasks. The further development of an attractive and lively Nuremberg city center is particularly close to Dr. Heilmaier's heart, also with the help of the trade fair. "We want to make ToyCity visible in the city center," Heilmaier announces, and this also includes "bringing elements of the toy fair into the city wherever possible." One of the latest developments in the city center, which, like all city centers in Germany, is struggling with structural problems, is the future use of the former Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof site on Königstraße. Heilmaier worked with others to ensure that the city acquired the building in the heart of the city center. The location is to be redeveloped with innovative ideas, including a convention center, seminar and training rooms for various educational institutions, and possible rooftop use with a fantastic view over the historic old town. There are also plans to continue using parts of the building for attractive retail offerings. "We have succeeded in persuading the Nuremberg-based children's book publisher Tessloff to set up a pop-up store," she says. This ties in nicely, as Tessloff has always been an important customer of the Spielwarenmesse.

"My goal is to make more things possible," says Heilmaier, "and that includes trying things out and developing them. The Spielwarenmesse is the perfect partner for this, as it is innovative itself and knows all about industries that are constantly changing." Discussions with the trade fair management about joint campaigns, not only in the anniversary year, have taken place and are to be continued. "We need to develop more and more ideas to give people a new experience of Nuremberg as a toy city," concludes the economic advisor.

About the author
Peter Budig studied Protestant theology, history, and political science. He worked as a freelance journalist, headed up the editorial department of a large advertising paper in Nuremberg for ten years, and was the editor of Nuremberg's Abendzeitung newspaper. He has been freelancing again since 2014 as a journalist, book author, and copywriter. Storytelling is absolutely his favorite form.