Award Arburg is the first company to receive the Paul Eberhard Schall Medal

To mark the 30th anniversary of Fakuma, the trade show organizer Schall is establishing the Paul-Eberhard-Schall Medal. The first award goes to Arburg. With this honor, the company recognizes the injection molding machine manufacturer’s connection to the trade show and to the plastics processing industry, as well as the collaboration between the two entrepreneurs, Paul Eberhard Schall and Eugen Hehl, who laid the foundation for Fakuma.

On the occasion of the 30th Fakuma , the trade show organizer Schall is awarding the Paul Eberhard Schall Medal for the first time. The award goes to Arburg, a company that, according to the award’s criteria, has a special connection to the trade show and the field of plastics processing. Bettina Schall announced this in her speech introducing the medal.

With this award, the trade show company also pays tribute to Paul Eberhard Schall and his guiding business principles: “Advancing technology, shaping the future, connecting people.” According to Bettina Schall, managing director of P. E. Schall GmbH & Co. KG, , this philosophy shaped his approach to customer relationships, technological development, and trade shows.

The partnership between Arburg and Schall laid the foundation for Fakuma

The history of Fakuma is closely linked to the collaboration between Paul Eberhard Schall and Eugen Hehl. According to Schall’s later recollections, prior to the first trade show in 1981, he visited major companies in the plastics industry, including Arburg in Loßburg. Eugen Hehl, who was the managing director at the time, was already hosting an annual in-house exhibition.

Schall presented his idea for the trade show in Friedrichshafen to Hehl. Hehl reportedly replied, in essence, that it didn’t really make any difference whether he held his in-house exhibition in Loßburg or in Friedrichshafen. This encounter and the subsequent collaboration laid the groundwork for the first Fakuma.

At the award ceremony, held during the Fakuma opening press conference, Bettina Schall described the collaboration as a partnership between two pragmatic entrepreneurs whose ideas and personal commitment laid the foundation for the trade show’s development.

From the First Trade Show to the Trade Fair for Injection Molding Technology

According to Bettina Schall, Fakuma—first held in 1981—has evolved into Europe’s leading trade fair for injection molding technology and plastics processing. The collaboration between Eugen Hehl and Paul Eberhard Schall helped promote technologies, shape the industry, and bring new products into people’s everyday lives.

The Paul Eberhard Schall Medal builds on this history. It is intended to honor a company’s special connection to Fakuma and to the plastics processing industry. Arburg is the first company to receive this award, having been involved in the very beginnings of the trade show’s history.

In Memory of Paul Eberhard Schall

With this medal, the trade show company highlights the entrepreneurial values of its founder. Paul Eberhard Schall founded his trading company, “Paul Schall junior Grafische Maschinen,” at the age of 24. According to the speech, closeness to customers and direct collaboration with people were central components of his entrepreneurial philosophy. His fascination with trade shows became a defining part of his life. Paul Eberhard Schall passed away in February 2016.