Exhibition’s oldest visitor

On the opening day of drupa, Maria Manns (nee Stapperfenne) paid a visit to the Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG booth, where chief executive Bernhard Schreier was on hand to welcome drupa’s most senior visitor.

Maria Manns was born in September 1910 in Düsseldorf and went to work in the printshop run by her father, Hermann Stapperfenne, at the age of five.
The company mostly produced account books for wholesale companies on a Heidelberg Tiegel press, which at that time was not electrically powered. In 1945, she took over her father’s business, which she continued to run until 1968. The sprightly lady held her own in technical conversations with fellow printers at drupa and was astounded at the technological progress that has been achieved.

She said: "When I think of all the changes there have been over the years, words fail me". She visited the first-ever drupa in 1951 and hopes to attend the next drupa in 2012.