DOSB to play leading role in Senior Citizens Fair to be opened by Chancellor Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to speak at the Senior Citizens Fair ©Getty Images

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to open the Senior Citizens Fair, which will see three days of activities take place from tomorrow until Saturday (July 4), including workshops and opportunities for delegates to check their fitness organised by the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) will be hosting

Merkel is set to speak at the event alongside Frankfurt Mayor Peter Feldmann at the Congress Centre of Messe Frankfuft tomorrow, before over 100 interactive events on a number of ageing issues such as their social and political participation, in addition to their health and care.

Among the activities will be a joint event held by the DOSB and the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB) about being fit and moving into the future, with the session set to held on Friday (July 3), aimed at informing people about mental and physical fitness in their old age.

As part of the event, several technical presentations will take place, while members of active senior sports groups are set to put their health to the test on stage.

The DOSB are also set to present their everyday fitness test designed in cooperation with the Institute of Gerontology at Heidelberg University.

The test is designed to provide information about the current physical fitness of people approaching 90-years-old, while the DOSB have also requested sports organisations set-up regional and national sporting facilities for senior citizens.

Frankfurt Mayor Peter Feldmann is due to speak at the Senior Citizens Fair in his city ©Bongarts/Getty Images

Additionally Landessportbund Hesse, one of the regional sports confederations of the DOSB, are set to hold events with local sport bodies in Frankfurt to showcase the opportunities and possibilities of sport and physical activity for people in their old age.

They are set to hold interactive sessions titled “Dance Feeling BestAge” and “thinking walk” which will try to invite older people to become more active.

The Senior Citizens Fair, organised every three years by the German National Association of Senior Citizens’ Organisations (BAGSO), is expected to attract experts from the fields of politics and society, education and involvement, and health and life of current senior’s policy issues.