Nearly 40 years ago, German publishing company Heinz Heise launched a magazine called Elrad – Magazin für Elektronik that featured cool electronics projects. And while that magazine is no longer in publication, it became the predecessor to c’t – Magazin für Computertechnik, launched in 1983 and currently the most subscribed-to computer magazine in all of Europe. Many of the magazine’s 70 editors are Makers and project enthusiasts themselves.
Needless to say, Heise is no stranger to the Maker Movement, so their decision to host Germany’s first Maker Faire Hannover three years ago came as no surprise. As Managing Director Dr. Alfons Schräder notes, “After we became aware of the launch of Make: and after my first visit to a Maker Faire, we were sure that the idea and the spirit would fit perfectly in Germany, with our company and the spirit of our editorial team.”
What they didn’t foresee was just how perfect the fit would be. When they hosted the first Maker Faire Hannover in 2012, Dr. Schräder recalls:
We didn’t have any idea how the community would react on our event and we started quite carefully without having too high of expectations. Our goal was to attract around 1,500 attendees to our first event. I remember very clearly our feelings when we opened the doors on that Saturday at 10 a.m. We had never expected such a large amount of people to be waiting for the opening. The crowd was so huge and our systems and the people at the box office were too few by far, and everybody had to wait to get in. We ended up with 4,500 enthusiastic attendees. Last year, at our second edition of Maker Faire Hannover, we doubled that and had around 9,000 attendees.
Here are some of the faces, projects, and moments captured from the Maker Faire Hannover 2012 and 2013:
