Gemstone metropolis Idar-Oberstein

Idar-Oberstein is a center of excellence in the gemstone industry

Idar- Oberstein is known worldwide for its more than 500 years of tradition in the gemstone and jewelry industry. Nowhere else are teaching and training, production and trade, services and research in the gemstone industry so closely linked and concentrated in one place as here. Above all, the high quality of the products and the know-how of the 400 or so local companies with around 1500 employees are in demand worldwide.

In recent decades, new business areas and markets have emerged from the existing expertise in grinding, polishing and toolmaking, particularly as a supplier. You can find out more details about the region of expertise and its diversity in dealing with hard and brittle materials in the HartSpröde brochure, which was created in 2014 as a joint project between the Idar-Oberstein municipal administration, the Birkenfeld district and the LandZukunft development agency and was funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

Because of this history, the name EdelSteinLand for the tourist destination of Idar-Oberstein and the historic medieval town of Herrstein is a natural choice.

For the fourth time, Idar-Oberstein as a gemstone metropolis is the subject of a special supplement in the Goldschmiede Zeitung. If you are also interested in genuine craftsmanship and innovative artists from the EdelSteinLand, we recommend the magazine "echt edel" and the associated website www.echtedel.com.

If you click on the respective graphic, you will be taken to the online version. Take a look and let yourself be enchanted by the brilliance of the gemstones and jewelry...

A number of institutes, teaching and research facilities, including the University of Applied Sciences for Gemstone and Jewelry Design, are based in Idar-Oberstein.

The INTERGEM trade fair, an international trade fair for gemstones, gemstone jewelry and gemstone objects, the crowning of the German Gemstone Queen and the presentation of the German Jewellery and Gemstone Award are crowd-pullers for trade visitors from all over the world. Intensive travel abroad and participation in trade fairs, for example in Hong Kong and Tucson/Arizona, are proof that the industry is active worldwide.