Deutsches Jazzfestival

The festival was first organised by the German Jazz Federation as an exhibition aiming to showcase the best that Germany had to offer in jazz, as explained by Olaf Hudtwalcker [de] at the opening of the first festival (3 May 1953).

The festival allowed the meeting of Volker Kriegel with Alan Skidmore (1972), Heinz Sauer with George Adams (1978), Peter Giger with Archie Shepp (1980), Alfred Harth with David Murray (1995) and Eberhard Weber with Pharoah Sanders (1997).

Caterina Valente, Theo Jörgensmann, Markus Stockhausen, Lauren Newton, Christof Lauer, Michael Sagmeister, Torsten de Winkel and Christopher Dell all started out at the festival as "newcomers".

In the course of its existence, the central organization of the festival has changed: The German Jazz Federation no longer belongs to the organizers; unlike its first decades it is no longer organised by Lippmann and Rau.

1984 saw the local broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk becoming the organizer of the festival, and since 1990 the City of Frankfurt itself has acted as a solid partner.