Carbon and graphite materials had gained tremendous industrial importance at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Hall-Héroult process for the production of aluminum and the EAF process for the recycling of steel scrap consume more than 20 million t of carbon materials today with a market value of about 24 billion €. Fine-grained graphite is indispensable for the production of solar cells and manifolds other applications. The growing need for efficient use of energy opens an enormous potential for CFRP in lightweight constructions for automotives, industrial applications, and construction. Natural graphite, synthetic graphite, and carbon materials are key components in Li-ion and redox flow batteries and EDLCs, i.e. energy storage. Nanoforms of carbon are used in polymers and spectacular applications in microelectronics seem realistic. The close networking between academia and industry is the precondition for the future success of carbon materials. The scientific carbon community did provide great contributions in the last decades to the understanding of various novel form of carbon. The carbon industry however recognizes the disappearance in competence for the traditional carbon materials. Needless to say, the profit created in these still growing traditional material markets provides the financial backbone for the development of new carbon materials.