The German print and media industry met in Hamburg from 14 to 16 May for the annual industry gathering. With over 400 participants, the German Print and Media Day 2025, which was held under the motto ‘On course together’, saw record attendance.
With the support of sponsors from the print and media industry, the BVDM and the regional associations Print and Media North-West and North-East organised the event. The central highlight was the 200th anniversary of Germany’s oldest regional employers’ association, the North-West Print and Media Association.
The business forum highlighted the interfaces between employers’ and trade associations, SMEs and social partnership. After the opening by Sönke Boyens, Vice President of the BVDM and Regional Chairman of the VDMNW, Dr Carsten Brosda, Senator for Culture and Media in Hamburg, welcomed the participants with a keynote speech in which he drew a bow to Hamburg’s media history. He said he was certain that there would still be print products in decades to come; the only question was how print and digital would complement each other in the future. In this, he echoed Sönke Boyens, for whom a world without print would be inconceivable.
Jörg Dittrich, President of the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts, focussed on SMEs in his presentation ‘SMEs – praised and burdened’. He said that legislation should not primarily be orientated towards large corporations, but towards the needs of SMEs. Almost all companies in Germany were categorised as small and medium-sized enterprises in a European comparison.
Another highlight was the speech by Steffen Kampeter, Managing Director of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations. Under the title ‘Social partnerships – as topical as 200 years ago and full of challenges’, he gave an insight into current political developments. His message was that politicians should not make populist decisions at the expense of those who provide services. He therefore also advocated a strong autonomy of collective bargaining, in which the social partners develop wages in dialogue without political guidelines.
BVDM
The Bundesverband Druck und Medien e. V. (BVDM) is the umbrella organisation of the German printing industry. As an employers’ organisation, political business association and technical trade association, it represents the positions and objectives of the printing industry vis-à-vis politicians, administration, trade unions and the supplier industry. The bvdm is supported by eight regional associations. Internationally, it is organised through its membership of Intergraf and FESPA. The printing industry currently comprises around 6,300 predominantly small and medium-sized companies with more than 99,000 employees subject to social security contributions.
