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WER MACHT
DAS ALLES?

WHO DOES
ALL THIS?

MERZ VERLAG

We are the Merz Verlag, organizer of the world’s largest visitors fair for boardgames SPIEL Essen. Our small team organizes the whole event and invites about 1.000 exhibitors and about 200.000 visitor from all over the world to Essen into the heart of the Ruhr area. From working with the exhibitors, planning the halls, coordination with the fair, media and visitor communication, awards for special games, ticketing and much much more, we at Merz Verlag take care of everthing regarding SPIEL Essen.

When planning and organizing the show we always keep in mind to show the multitude and diversity of the gaming world, as much in the games at the fair as with the exhibitors or the accompanying events. Gaming is colorful and done together, which is what we stand for as well. Respect for each other, getting along well, and inclusion are as important to us as fun and games.

We want to present an event to all our guests that brings together the whole world of games and lets everyone have a great time. Always at the core of SPIEL was and will be the basic idea of our founder Friedhelm Merz:

Everyone can come to us and test and buy the games at the booths.

OUR TEAM

Ansprechpartner

CAROL RAPP

Managing Director

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CLAUDIA BLÖSER

Project Manager

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DAMARIS HOLLMANN

Administration

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KEVIN WEGENER

Project Manager

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KIRSTEN SCHWEDA

Project Manager

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ROBIN DE CLEUR

Director Communications

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STEFFI STEYNES

Senior Project Manager

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TORSTEN BECKER

Project Manager

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VANESSA STRENG

Project Manager

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GET TO KNOW US

CAREER

You want to work in the world of board games and be part of the biggest board game fair of the world? Here you find our open positions.

And when there is no job open, but you just cannot wait to work at Merz Verlag, please send us your application anyway to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

THE HISTORY OF MERZ VERLAG AND OF SPIEL ESSEN

Since 1983 the boardgames fair takes place in Essen.

Here you can read the complete history of SPIEL: