With this invention knowledge entered mass production. Gutenberg’s idea was brilliantly simple: durable casting moulds for producing reusable type. After about three years Gutenberg had printed the first “best-seller” in history: the Bible. Since the introduction of the printing press, printing technology has been continuously advanced in Germany. The world’s leading printing machine manufacturers are from Germany, and lithography as well as offset printing were developed here.

The distribution of the printed word accelerated the Reformation and Enlightenment, and promoted literacy. Poets and thinkers took advantage of the new technology, making the German book scene thrive – but censorship and barbarism almost destroyed it: on 10 May 1933 National Socialists burned the works of modern and dissident authors everywhere in Germany. The book burning put a preliminary end to 500 years of German book culture.

After the war a diverse media landscape developed once again in Germany. Year after year, 1,800 publishing houses launch almost 80,000 titles on the market. At the largest book fair in the world, in Frankfurt, exhibitors from more than 100 countries present tomorrow’s best-sellers. The best-selling work in 2005, however, was not from Germany: almost everywhere, it was “Harry Potter”.

“Modern Book Printing” is one of six sculptures that are forming the “Walk of Ideas” on the occasion of the Football World Cup. It is a walk through ideas from Germany, and the individual inventions represent the creativity and ingenuity of composers, litterateurs, scientists, researchers, engineers and inventors.

More German ideas are concealed within the sculptures themselves: they are all made of Neopor®, an innovative plastic material by BASF, and coated with a new metallic paint developed by BASF Coatings.

Find more about the "Walk of Ideas"