![Sattelite Wiesbaden Mainz](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Sattelite_Wiesbaden_Mainz.jpg)
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
, opposite to the place that the
Main
Main may refer to:
Geography
* Main River (disambiguation)
**Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany
* Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province
*"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries
...
joins the Rhine. Downstream of the
confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Mainz on the left bank, and
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
, the capital of the neighbouring state
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...
, on the right bank.
Mainz is an
independent city
An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province).
Historical precursors
In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...
with a population of 218,578 (as of 2019) and forms part of the
Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region.
Mainz was founded by the
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
in the 1st century BC as a military fortress on the northernmost frontier of the empire and provincial capital of
Germania Superior. Mainz became an important city in the 8th century AD as part of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...
, capital of the
Electorate of Mainz
The Electorate of Mainz (german: Kurfürstentum Mainz or ', la, Electoratus Moguntinus), previously known in English as Mentz and by its French name Mayence, was one of the most prestigious and influential states of the Holy Roman Empire. In the ...
and seat of the
Archbishop-Elector of Mainz
The Elector of Mainz was one of the seven Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire. As both the Archbishop of Mainz and the ruling prince of the Electorate of Mainz, the Elector of Mainz held a powerful position during the Middle Ages. The Archb ...
, the
Primate
Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...
of Germany. Mainz is famous as the birthplace of
Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of a movable-type
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
, who in the early 1450s manufactured his first books in the city, including the
Gutenberg Bible
The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42) was the earliest major book printed using mass-produced movable metal type in Europe. It marked the start of the " Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of printed ...
. Mainz was heavily damaged in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
; more than
30 air raids destroyed most of the historic buildings.
Mainz is notable as a
transport hub
A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips. F ...
, for wine production, and for its many rebuilt historic buildings. One of the
ShUM-cities
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
, Mainz and its Jewish cemetery is part of the UNESCO
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
.
Geography
Topography
Mainz is on the 50th latitude north, on the
left bank of the Rhine. The east of the city is opposite where the
Main
Main may refer to:
Geography
* Main River (disambiguation)
**Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany
* Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province
*"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries
...
falls into it. The population in early 2012 was 200,957. A further 18,619 people live mainly elsewhere but have a
second home in Mainz. The city is part of the Rhein Metro area of 5.8 million people. Mainz can easily be reached from
Frankfurt International Airport in 25 minutes by commuter railway
Line S8.
![50](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/50._Breitengrad_in_Mainz.jpg)
Mainz is a
river port
An inland port is a port on an inland waterway, such as a river, lake, or canal, which may or may not be connected to the sea. The term "inland port" is also used to refer to a dry port.
Examples
The United States Army Corps of Engineers publ ...
city as the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
which connects with its main tributaries, such as the
Neckar, the Main and, later, the
Moselle and thereby continental Europe with the
Port of Rotterdam
The Port of Rotterdam is the largest seaport in Europe, and the world's largest seaport outside of East Asia, located in and near the city of Rotterdam, in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. From 1962 until 2004, it was the worl ...
and thus the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...
. Mainz's history and economy are closely tied to its proximity to the Rhine historically handling much of the region's waterborne cargo. Today's huge
container port hub allowing
trimodal transport is north of the town centre. The river moderates climate. It makes waterfront neighbourhoods slightly warmer in winter and cooler in summer.
After the
last ice age, sand dunes were deposited in the Rhine valley at what was to become the western edge of the city. The
Mainz Sand Dunes The Mainz Sand Dunes (german: Großer Sand) are a small geological and botanical supra-region and important nature preserve in Mainz, Germany. Within this protected area rare plants and animals can be found. Some of the species represented here, suc ...
area is now a nature reserve with a unique landscape and rare ''steppe'' vegetation for this area.
While the Mainz legion camp was founded in 13/12 BC on the Kästrich hill, the associated
vici and
canabae
A (plural ) was the Latin term for a hut or hovel and was later (from the time of Hadrian) used typically to mean a town that emerged as a civilian settlement () in the vicinity of a Roman legionary fortress ().
A settlement that grew up outs ...
(civilian settlements) were erected towards the Rhine. Historical sources and archaeological findings both prove the importance of the military and civilian Mogontiacum as a port city on the Rhine.
Climate
Mainz experiences an
oceanic climate (
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
''Cfb'').
History
Roman Mogontiacum
![Stadttor1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Stadttor1.jpg)
The Roman stronghold or ''
castrum
In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a po ...
Mogontiacum'', the precursor to Mainz, was founded by the Roman general
Drusus
Drusus may refer to:
* Claudius (Tiberius Claudius Drusus) (10 BC–AD 54), Roman emperor from 41 to 54
* Drusus Caesar (AD 8–33), adoptive grandson of Roman emperor Tiberius
* Drusus Julius Caesar (14 BC–AD 23), son of Roman emperor Tiberiu ...
perhaps as early as 13/12 BC. As related by
Suetonius the existence of ''Mogontiacum'' is well established by four years later (the account of the death and funeral of
Nero Claudius Drusus
Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus (38–9 BC), also called Drusus the Elder, was a Roman politician and military commander. He was a patrician Claudian on his birth father's side but his maternal grandmother was from a plebeian family. He was the ...
), though several other theories suggest the site may have been established earlier. Although the city is situated opposite the mouth of the
Main
Main may refer to:
Geography
* Main River (disambiguation)
**Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany
* Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province
*"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries
...
, the name of Mainz is not from ''Main'', the similarity being perhaps reinforced by
folk-etymological reanalysis. ''Main'' is from Latin ''Moenis'' (also ''Moenus'' or ''Menus''), the name the Romans used for the river.
Linguistic
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
analysis of the many forms that the name "Mainz" has taken on make it clear that it is a simplification of ''Mogontiacum''. The name appears to be
Celtic and ultimately it is. However, it had also become Roman and was selected by them with a special significance. The Roman soldiers defending
Gallia
Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during Rep ...
had adopted the Gallic god
Mogons
Mogons or Moguns was a Celtic god worshiped in Roman Britain and Gaul. The main evidence is from altars dedicated to the god by Roman soldiers.
Etymology
According to J.T. Koch at the University of Wales, the various alternations of the name ' ...
(Mogounus, Moguns, Mogonino), for the meaning of which etymology offers two basic options: "the great one", similar to Latin magnus, which was used in aggrandizing names such as ''Alexander magnus'', "Alexander the Great" and ''Pompeius magnus'', "Pompey the great", or the god of "might" personified as it appears in young servitors of any type whether of noble or ignoble birth.
Mogontiacum was an important military town throughout Roman times, probably due to its strategic position at the confluence of the Main and the Rhine. The town of ''Mogontiacum'' grew up between the fort and the river. The castrum was the base of
Legio XIV ''Gemina'' and
XVI ''Gallica'' (AD 9–43),
XXII ''Primigenia'',
IV ''Macedonica'' (43–70),
I ''Adiutrix'' (70–88),
XXI ''Rapax'' (70–89), and
XIV ''Gemina'' (70–92), among others. Mainz was also a base of a Roman river fleet, the
Classis Germanica. Remains of Roman troop ships (
navis lusoria
A ''navis lusoria'' (, plural ) is a type of a small military vessel of the late Roman Empire that served as a troop transport. It was powered by about thirty soldier- oarsmen and an auxiliary sail. Nimble, graceful, and of shallow draft, such a ...
) and a patrol boat from the late 4th century were discovered in 1982/86 and may now be viewed in the ''Museum für Antike Schifffahrt''. A temple dedicated to
Isis Panthea and
Magna Mater
Cybele ( ; Phrygian: ''Matar Kubileya/Kubeleya'' "Kubileya/Kubeleya Mother", perhaps "Mountain Mother"; Lydian ''Kuvava''; el, Κυβέλη ''Kybele'', ''Kybebe'', ''Kybelis'') is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible foreru ...
was discovered in 2000 and is open to the public. The city was the provincial capital of
Germania Superior, and had an important funeral monument dedicated to Drusus, to which people made pilgrimages for an annual festival from as far away as
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...
. Among the famous buildings were the largest
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
north of the Alps and a bridge across the Rhine. The city was also the site of the assassination of emperor
Severus Alexander
Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander (1 October 208 – 21/22 March 235) was a Roman emperor, who reigned from 222 until 235. He was the last emperor from the Severan dynasty. He succeeded his slain cousin Elagabalus in 222. Alexander himself was ...
in 235.
Alemanni forces under
Rando sacked the city in 368. From the last day of 405 or 406, the Siling and Asding
Vandals
The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century.
The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...
, the
Suebi, the
Alans
The Alans (Latin: ''Alani'') were an ancient and medieval Iranian nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus – generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the A ...
, and other Germanic tribes
crossed the Rhine, possibly at Mainz. Christian chronicles relate that the bishop,
Aureus
The ''aureus'' ( ''aurei'', 'golden', used as a noun) was a gold coin of ancient Rome originally valued at 25 pure silver ''denarii'' (sin. denarius). The ''aureus'' was regularly issued from the 1st century BC to the beginning of the 4th cen ...
, was put to death by the Alemannian Crocus. The way was open to the sack of
Trier
Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...
and the invasion of Gaul.
Throughout the changes of time, the Roman castrum never seems to have been permanently abandoned as a military installation, which is a testimony to Roman military judgement. Different structures were built there at different times. The current citadel originated in 1660, but it replaced previous forts. It was used in World War II. One of the sights at the citadel is still the
cenotaph
A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...
raised by legionaries to commemorate their
Drusus
Drusus may refer to:
* Claudius (Tiberius Claudius Drusus) (10 BC–AD 54), Roman emperor from 41 to 54
* Drusus Caesar (AD 8–33), adoptive grandson of Roman emperor Tiberius
* Drusus Julius Caesar (14 BC–AD 23), son of Roman emperor Tiberiu ...
.
Frankish Mainz
Through a series of incursions during the 4th century
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
gradually lost its Belgic ethnic character of formerly Germanic tribes among Celts ruled by Romans and became predominantly influenced by the
Alamanni. The Romans repeatedly re-asserted control; however, the troops stationed at Mainz became chiefly non-Italic and the emperors had only one or two Italian ancestors in a pedigree that included chiefly peoples of the northern frontier.
The last emperor to station troops serving the western empire at Mainz was
Valentinian III
Valentinian III ( la, Placidus Valentinianus; 2 July 41916 March 455) was Roman emperor in the West from 425 to 455. Made emperor in childhood, his reign over the Roman Empire was one of the longest, but was dominated by powerful generals vying ...
(reigned 425–455), who relied heavily on his ''Magister militum per Gallias'',
Flavius Aëtius
Aetius (also spelled Aëtius; ; 390 – 454) was a Roman general and statesman of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He was a military commander and the most influential man in the Empire for two decades (433454). He managed pol ...
. By that time the army included large numbers of troops from the major Germanic confederacies along the Rhine, the Alamanni, the
Saxons
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
and the
Franks
The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...
. The Franks were an opponent that had risen to power and reputation among the Belgae of the lower Rhine during the 3rd century and repeatedly attempted to extend their influence upstream. In 358 the emperor
Julian bought peace by giving them most of
Germania Inferior
Germania Inferior ("Lower Germania") was a Roman province from AD 85 until the province was renamed Germania Secunda in the fourth century, on the west bank of the Rhine bordering the North Sea. The capital of the province was Colonia Agripp ...
, which they possessed anyway, and imposing service in the Roman army in exchange.
European factions in the time of master Aëtius included Celts, Goths, Franks, Saxons, Alamanni, Huns, Italians, and Alans as well as numerous other minor peoples. Aëtius played them all off against one another in a masterly effort to keep the peace under Roman sovereignty. He used Hunnic troops a number of times. At last, a day of reckoning arrived between Aëtius and
Attila, both commanding polyglot, multi-ethnic troops. Attila went through Alsace in 451, devastating the country and destroying Mainz and Trier with their Roman garrisons. Shortly after he was thwarted by
Flavius Aëtius
Aetius (also spelled Aëtius; ; 390 – 454) was a Roman general and statesman of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He was a military commander and the most influential man in the Empire for two decades (433454). He managed pol ...
at the
Battle of Châlons
The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (or Fields), also called the Battle of the Campus Mauriacus, Battle of Châlons, Battle of Troyes or the Battle of Maurica, took place on June 20, 451 AD, between a coalition – led by the Roman general ...
, the largest of the ancient world.
Aëtius was not to enjoy the victory long. He was assassinated in 454 by the hand of his employer, who in turn was stabbed to death by friends of Aëtius in 455. As far as the north was concerned this was the effective end of the Roman empire there. After some sanguinary but relatively brief contention a former subordinate of Aëtius,
Ricimer
Flavius Ricimer ( , ; – 18/19 August 472) was a Romanized Germanic general who effectively ruled the remaining territory of the Western Roman Empire from 461 until his death in 472, with a brief interlude in which he contested power with An ...
, became commander in chief, and was named Patrician. His father was a Suebian; his mother, a princess of the
Visigoths
The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is ...
. Ricimer did not rule the north directly but set up a client province there, which functioned independently. The capital was at
Soissons
Soissons () is a commune in the northern French department of Aisne, in the region of Hauts-de-France. Located on the river Aisne, about northeast of Paris, it is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital o ...
. Even then its status was equivocal. Many insisted it was the
Kingdom of Soissons
The Kingdom or Domain of Soissons was a rump state of the Western Roman Empire in northern Gaul, between the Somme and the Seine, that lasted for some 25 years during Late Antiquity. The rulers of the rump state, notably its final ruler Syagrius, ...
. which extended across northern France and was ruled in the name of Rome by Aegidius, an ally of emperor Majorian, 457–461, who died about 464. He was succeeded by his son, Syagrius, who was defeated by Clovis in 486.
Previously the first of the
Merovingian
The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...
s,
Clodio
Chlodio (probably died after 450), also Clodio, Clodius, Clodion, Cloio or Chlogio, was a Franks, Frankish king who attacked and then apparently ruled Roman-inhabited lands around Cambrai and Tournai, near the modern border of Belgium and France. ...
, had been defeated by Aëtius at about 430. His son,
Merovaeus, fought on the Roman side against Attila, and his son,
Childeric, served in the domain of Soissons. Meanwhile, the Franks were gradually infiltrating and assuming power in this domain from
Toxandria
Texandria (also Toxiandria; later Toxandria, Taxandria), is a region mentioned in the 4th century AD and during the Middle Ages. It was situated in the southern part of the modern Netherlands and in the northern part of present-day Belgium, current ...
(northern Belgium which had been given to them by the Romans to protect as allies). They also moved up the Rhine and created a domain in the region of the former Germania Superior with capital at
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
. They became known as the
Ripuarian Franks
Ripuarian or Rhineland Franks (Latin: ''Ripuarii'' or ''Ribuarii'') were one of the two main groupings of early Frankish people, and specifically it was the name eventually applied to the tribes who settled in the old Roman territory of the Ubii, ...
as opposed to the
Salian Franks
The Salian Franks, also called the Salians (Latin: ''Salii''; Greek: Σάλιοι, ''Salioi''), were a northwestern subgroup of the early Franks who appear in the historical record in the fourth and fifth centuries. They lived west of the Low ...
. Events moved rapidly in the late 5th century.
After the
fall of the Western Roman Empire
The fall of the Western Roman Empire (also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome) was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vas ...
in 476, the
Franks
The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...
under the rule of
Clovis I gained control over western Europe by the year 496. Clovis, son of Childeric, became king of the Salians in 481, ruling from
Tournai. In 486 he defeated
Syagrius
Syagrius (430 – 486 or 487 or 493–4) was a Roman general and the last ruler of a Roman rump state in northern Gaul, now called the Kingdom of Soissons. Gregory of Tours referred to him as King of the Romans. Syagrius's defeat by king Clovis ...
, the last governor of the Soissons domain, and took northern France. He extended his reign to
Cambrai and
Tongeren
Tongeren (; french: Tongres ; german: Tongern ; li, Tóngere ) is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg, in the southeastern corner of the Flemish region of Belgium. Tongeren is the oldest town in Belgium, as the onl ...
in 490–491, and repelled the Alamanni in 496. Also in that year, he converted to Catholicism from non-
Arian Christianity. Clovis annexed the kingdom of Cologne in 508. Thereafter, Mainz, in its strategic position, became one of the bases of the Frankish kingdom. Mainz had sheltered a Christian community long before the conversion of Clovis. His successor
Dagobert I
Dagobert I ( la, Dagobertus; 605/603 – 19 January 639 AD) was the king of Austrasia (623–634), king of all the Franks (629–634), and king of Neustria and Burgundy (629–639). He has been described as the last king of the Merovingian dyna ...
reinforced the walls of Mainz and made it one of his seats. A
solidus
Solidus (Latin for "solid") may refer to:
* Solidus (coin), a Roman coin of nearly solid gold
* Solidus (punctuation), or slash, a punctuation mark
* Solidus (chemistry), the line on a phase diagram below which a substance is completely solid
* ...
of
Theodebert I (534–548) was minted at Mainz.
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first ...
(768–814), through a succession of wars against other tribes, built a vast Frankish empire in Europe. Mainz from its central location became important to the empire and to Christianity. Meanwhile, language change was gradually working to divide the Franks. Mainz spoke a dialect termed
Ripuarian. On the death of Charlemagne, distinctions between France and Germany began to be made. Mainz was not central any longer but was on the border, creating a question of the nationality to which it belonged, which descended into modern times as the question of Alsace-Lorraine.
Christian Mainz
![Gebetsraum Synagoge Weisenau 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Gebetsraum_Synagoge_Weisenau_01.jpg)
In the early
Middle Ages, Mainz was a centre for the
Christianisation
Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...
of the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
and
Slavic peoples. The first archbishop in Mainz,
Boniface
Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations o ...
, was killed in 754 while trying to convert the
Frisians to Christianity and is buried in
Fulda. Boniface held a personal title of archbishop; Mainz became a regular archbishopric see in 781, when Boniface's successor
Lullus
Saint Lullus (Lull or Lul) (born about 710 AD in Wessex, died 16 October 786 in Hersfeld) was the first permanent archbishop of Mainz, succeeding Saint Boniface, and first abbot of the Benedictine Hersfeld Abbey. He is historiographically consid ...
was granted the
pallium
The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : ''pallia'') is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropol ...
by
Pope Adrian I
Pope Adrian I ( la, Hadrianus I; died 25 December 795) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 1 February 772 to his death. He was the son of Theodore, a Roman nobleman.
Adrian and his predecessors had to contend with periodic ...
.
Harald Klak
Harald 'Klak' Halfdansson (c. 785 – c. 852) was a king in Jutland (and possibly other parts of Denmark) around 812–814 and again from 819–827."Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's Histories" (1970), translation by Bernh ...
, king of Jutland, his family and followers, were baptized at Mainz in 826, in the
abbey of St. Alban's. Other early archbishops of Mainz include
Rabanus Maurus, the scholar and author, and
Willigis
Willigis ( la, Willigisus; german: Willigis, Willegis; 940 – 23 February 1011 AD) was Archbishop of Mainz from 975 until his death as well as archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire.
Life
Willigus was born in the Duchy of Saxony, possibly at ...
(975–1011), who began construction on the current building of the
Mainz Cathedral
, native_name_lang =
, image = Mainzer Dom nw.jpg
, imagesize =
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, imagealt =
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, pushpin map =
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and founded the monastery of St. Stephan.
![Wenzel Hollar Mainzer Dom 1632](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Wenzel_Hollar_Mainzer_Dom_1632.jpg)
From the time of Willigis until the end of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...
in 1806, the
Archbishops of Mainz were archchancellors of the Empire and the most important of the seven
Electors of the German emperor. Besides Rome, the
diocese of Mainz
The Diocese of Mainz, historically known in English as ''Mentz'' as well as by its French name ''Mayence'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was founded in 304, promoted in 780 to Metrop ...
today is the only
diocese
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...
in the world with an
episcopal see that is called a
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...
(''sancta sedes''). The Archbishops of Mainz traditionally were ''
primas germaniae
Primas Germaniae is a historical title of honor for the most important Roman Catholic bishop (the Primate) in the German lands. Throughout the history of the Holy Roman Empire, it was claimed by the Archbishops of Mainz, Trier, Magdeburg and Salz ...
'', the substitutes of the Pope north of the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...
.
In 1244, Archbishop
Siegfried III granted Mainz a city charter, which included the right of the citizens to establish and elect a city council. The city saw a
feud between two archbishops in 1461, namely
Diether von Isenburg
Diether von Isenburg ( 14127 May 1482) was twice Archbishop (1459–1461 and 1475–1482) and founder of the University of Mainz. As Archbishop of Mainz, he was ''ex officio'' Elector and Lord Chancellor of Germany.
Biography
Diether was a son ...
, who was elected Archbishop by the
cathedral chapter and supported by the citizens, and
Adolf II von Nassau
Adolph II (or III) of Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein (German: Adolf II. von Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein) (c. 1423 – 6 September 1475) was Archbishop of Mainz from 1461 until 1475.
Adolph was a son of Count Adolph II of Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein.
In 14 ...
, who had been named archbishop for Mainz by the pope. In 1462, Archbishop Adolf raided the city of Mainz, plundering and killing 400 inhabitants. At a tribunal, those who had survived lost all their property, which was then divided between those who promised to follow Adolf. Those who would not promise to follow Adolf (amongst them
Johannes Gutenberg) were driven out of the town or thrown into prison. The new archbishop revoked the city charter of Mainz and put the city under his direct rule. Ironically, after the death of Adolf II his successor was again Diether von Isenburg, now legally elected by the chapter and named by the Pope.
Early Jewish community
The Jewish community of Mainz dates to the 10th century CE. It is noted for its religious education. Rabbi
Gershom ben Judah
Gershom ben Judah, (c. 960 -1040) best known as Rabbeinu Gershom ( he, רבנו גרשום, "Our teacher Gershom") and also commonly known to scholars of Judaism by the title ''Rabbeinu Gershom Me'Or Hagolah'' ("Our teacher Gershom the light of the ...
(960–1040) taught there, among others.
He concentrated on the study of the
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
, creating a German Jewish tradition. Mainz is also the legendary home of the martyred Rabbi
Amnon of Mainz, composer of the
Unetanneh Tokef prayer. The Jews of Mainz,
Speyer
Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer li ...
and
Worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany
Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had ...
created a supreme council to set standards in Jewish law and education in the 12th century.
The city of Mainz responded to the Jewish population in a variety of ways, behaving in a capricious manner towards them. Sometimes they were allowed freedom and were protected; at other times, they were persecuted. The Jews were expelled in 1012, 1462 (after which they were invited to return), and in 1474. Jews were attacked in the
Rhineland massacres of 1096 and by mobs in 1283. Outbreaks of the
Black Death were usually blamed on the Jews, at which times they were massacred, such as the burning of 11 Jews alive in 1349.
Outside of the medieval city centre, there is a Jewish cemetery, with over 1500 headstones dating from the 11th through the 19th centuries.
The earliest known gravestone is date to 1062 or 1063, and these early gravestones resemble those found in Italy in the late 10th century.
Medieval memorial stones which do not explicitly mark graves are also found in the cemetery.
Nowadays the Jewish community is growing rapidly, and a
new synagogue by the architect
Manuel Herz was constructed in 2010 on the site of the one destroyed by the Nazis on ''
Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation fro ...
'' in 1938. The community itself has 1,034 members, according to the
Central Council of Jews in Germany
The Central Council of Jews in Germany (German name: Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland) is a federation of German Jews. It was founded on 19 July 1950, as a response to the increasing isolation of German Jews by the international Jewish communi ...
, and at least twice as many Jews altogether since many are unaffiliated with Judaism.
Republic of Mainz
During the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
, the French Revolutionary army occupied Mainz in 1792; the
Archbishop of Mainz, Friedrich Karl Josef von Erthal, had already fled to
Aschaffenburg
Aschaffenburg (; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Aschebersch'') is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not part of the Aschaffenburg (district), district of Aschaffenburg, but is its administrative sea ...
by the time the French marched in. On 18 March 1793, the
Jacobins
, logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg
, logo_size = 180px
, logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794)
, motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir)
, successor = P ...
of Mainz, with other German democrats from about 130 towns in the
Rhenish Palatinate, proclaimed the '
Republic of Mainz
The Republic of Mainz was the first democratic state in the current German territoryThe short-lived republic is often ignored in identifying the "first German democracy", in favour of the Weimar Republic; e.g. "the failure of the first Germa ...
'. Led by
Georg Forster
Johann George Adam Forster, also known as Georg Forster (, 27 November 1754 – 10 January 1794), was a German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist and revolutionary. At an early age, he accompanied his father, Johann Reinhold ...
, representatives of the Mainz Republic in Paris requested political affiliation of the Mainz Republic with France, but too late:
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
was not entirely happy with the idea of a democratic free state on German soil (although the French dominated Mainz was neither free nor democratic). Prussian troops had already occupied the area and besieged Mainz by the end of March 1793. After a
siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteriz ...
of 18 weeks, the French troops in Mainz surrendered on 23 July 1793; Prussians occupied the city and ended the Republic of Mainz. It came to the
Battle of Mainz in 1795 between Austria and France. Members of the Mainz
Jacobin Club were mistreated or imprisoned and punished for treason.
![Jeanbon2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Jeanbon2.jpg)
In 1797, the French returned. The army of
Napoléon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
occupied the German territory to the west of the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
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, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
, and the
Treaty of Campo Formio
The Treaty of Campo Formio (today Campoformido) was signed on 17 October 1797 (26 Vendémiaire VI) by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Philipp von Cobenzl as representatives of the French Republic and the Austrian monarchy, respectively. The trea ...
awarded France this entire area. On 17 February 1800, the French ''
Département du Mont-Tonnerre'' was founded here, with Mainz as its capital, the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
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, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
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, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
being the new eastern frontier of la Grande Nation. Austria and
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
could not but approve this new border with France in 1801. However, after several defeats in Europe during the next years, the weakened Napoléon and his troops had to leave Mainz in May 1814.
Rhenish Hesse
In 1816, the part of the former French Département which is known today as
Rhenish Hesse
Rhenish Hesse or Rhine HesseDickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 542. . (german: Rheinhessen) is a region and a former government district () in the German state of Rhineland- ...
(german: link=no, Rheinhessen) was awarded to the
Hesse-Darmstadt
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt) was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a younger branch of the House of Hesse. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse betwee ...
, Mainz being the capital of the new
Hessian province of Rhenish Hesse. From 1816 to 1866, to the
German Confederation
The German Confederation (german: Deutscher Bund, ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, w ...
Mainz was the most important fortress in the defence against France, and had a strong garrison of Austrian,
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
n and
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
n troops.
On the afternoon of 18 November 1857, a huge explosion rocked Mainz when the city's powder magazine, the ''Pulverturm'', exploded. Approximately 150 people were killed and at least 500 injured; 57 buildings were destroyed and a similar number severely damaged in what was to be known as the ''Powder Tower Explosion'' or ''Powder Explosion''.
During the
Austro-Prussian War in 1866, Mainz was declared a neutral zone. After the founding of the
German Empire in 1871, Mainz no longer was as important a stronghold, because in the
War of 1870/71 France had lost the territory of
Alsace-Lorraine to Germany (which France had occupied bit by bit from 1630 to 1795), and this defined the new border between the two countries.
Industrial expansion
![Mainz BlickzumRhein 1890](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Mainz_BlickzumRhein_1890.jpg)
For centuries the inhabitants of the
fortress of Mainz
The Fortress of Mainz was a fortressed garrison town between 1620 and 1918. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, under the term of the 1815 Peace of Paris, the control of Mainz passed to the German Confederation and became part of a chain of st ...
had suffered from a severe shortage of space which led to disease and other inconveniences. In 1872 Mayor
Carl Wallau and the council of Mainz persuaded the military government to sign a contract to expand the city. Beginning in 1874, the city of Mainz assimilated the ''Gartenfeld'', an idyllic area of meadows and fields along the banks of the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
to the north of the rampart. The city expansion more than doubled the urban area which allowed Mainz to participate in the
industrial revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
which had previously avoided the city for decades.
Eduard Kreyßig was the man who made this happen. Having been the master-builder of the city of Mainz since 1865, Kreyßig had the vision for the new part of town, the ''Neustadt''. He also planned the first sewer system for the old part of town since Roman times and persuaded the city government to relocate the railway line from the Rhine side to the west end of the town.
The main station was built from 1882 to 1884 according to the plans of Philipp Johann Berdellé.
![Mainz-Stadtplan1898](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Mainz-Stadtplan1898.jpg)
The Mainz master builder constructed a number of state-of-the-art public buildings, including the Mainz town hall – which was the largest of its kind in Germany at that time – as well a synagogue, the Rhine harbour and a number of public baths and school buildings. Kreyßig's last work was
Christ Church (''Christuskirche''), the largest Protestant church in the city and the first building constructed solely for the use of a Protestant congregation. In 1905 the demolition of the entire circumvallation and the
Rheingauwall was taken in hand, according to the imperial order of
Wilhelm II
, house = Hohenzollern
, father = Frederick III, German Emperor
, mother = Victoria, Princess Royal
, religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United)
, signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...
.
20th century
During the
German Revolution of 1918
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
the
Mainz Workers' and Soldiers' Council was formed which ran the city from 9 November until the arrival of French troops under the terms of the
occupation of the Rhineland agreed in the
Armistice
An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the ...
. The French occupation was confirmed by the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
which went into effect 28 June 1919. The
Rhineland
The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section.
Term
Historically, the Rhinelands ...
(in which Mainz is located) was to be a demilitarized zone until 1935 and the French garrison, representing the ''
Triple Entente
The Triple Entente (from French '' entente'' meaning "friendship, understanding, agreement") describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as well a ...
'', was to stay until reparations were paid.
In 1923 Mainz participated in the Rhineland separatist movement that proclaimed a republic in the Rhineland. It collapsed in 1924. The French withdrew on 30 June 1930.
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
became chancellor of Germany in January 1933 and his political opponents, especially those of the Social Democratic Party, were either incarcerated or murdered. Some were able to move away from Mainz in time. One was the political organizer for the SPD,
Friedrich Kellner, who went to Laubach, where, as the chief justice inspector of the district court, he continued his opposition against the Nazis by recording their misdeeds in a 900-page
diary
A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digital. A personal ...
.
In March 1933, a detachment from the
National Socialist Party in
Worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany
Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had ...
brought the party to Mainz. They hoisted the
swastika on all public buildings and began to denounce the Jewish population in the newspapers. In 1936, the Nazis
remilitarized the Rhineland with great fanfare, the first move of
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
's meteoric expansion. The former Triple Entente took no action.
During World War II the citadel at Mainz hosted the
Oflag XII-B
Oflag XII-B was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp for officers ('' Offizierlager'') located in the citadel of Mainz, in western Germany. The fortress had also served as an ''Oflag'' in World War I.
Camp history
In June 1940 British, Belg ...
prisoner of war camp.
The Bishop of Mainz,
Albert Stohr, formed an organization to help Jews escape from Germany.
During World War II, more than
30 air raids destroyed about 80 per cent of the city's centre, including most of the historic buildings. Mainz was captured on 22 March 1945 against uneven German resistance (staunch in some sectors and weak in other parts of the city) by the
90th Infantry Division 90th Division may refer to:
;Infantry
* 90th Division (1st Formation)(People's Republic of China), 1949–1950
* 90th Division (2nd Formation)(People's Republic of China), 1950–1952
* 90th Light Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
* 90th Infantry Divi ...
under
William A. McNulty
Colonel William Anderson McNulty (September 29, 1910 – January 25, 2005) was a decorated officer of the United States, United States of America during World War II.
Early years
McNulty was born on September 29, 1910, in Roanoke, Virginia, as ...
, a formation of the XII Corps under Third Army commanded by General
George S. Patton
George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France ...
, Jr. Patton used the ancient strategic gateway through ''Germania Superior'' to cross the Rhine south of Mainz, drive down the
Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...
towards
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
and end the possibility of a Bavarian redoubt crossing the Alps in Austria when the war ended.
From 1945 to 1949, the city was part of the French zone of occupation. When the state of
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
was founded on 30 August 1946 by the commander of the French army on the French occupation zone
Marie Pierre Kœnig
Marie may refer to:
People Name
* Marie (given name)
* Marie (Japanese given name)
* Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973
* Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in T ...
, Mainz became the capital of the new state. In 1962, the diarist,
Friedrich Kellner, returned to spend his last years in Mainz. His life in Mainz, and the impact of his
writings, is the subject of the Canadian documentary ''
My Opposition: The Diaries of Friedrich Kellner''.
Following the withdrawal of French forces from Mainz, the
United States Army Europe
United States Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) is an Army Service Component Command (ASCC) /Theater Army responsible for directing United States Army operations throughout the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (AFRICO ...
occupied the military bases in Mainz. Today USAREUR only occupies McCulley Barracks in Wackernheim and the
Mainz Sand Dunes The Mainz Sand Dunes (german: Großer Sand) are a small geological and botanical supra-region and important nature preserve in Mainz, Germany. Within this protected area rare plants and animals can be found. Some of the species represented here, suc ...
for the training areas. Mainz is home to the headquarters of the ''Bundeswehr''s ''
Landeskommando'' Rhineland-Palatinate and other units.
Minority groups
The following list shows the largest minority groups in Mainz :
Cityscape
Architecture
The destruction caused by the
bombing of Mainz during World War II led to the most intense phase of building in the history of the town. During the last war in Germany, more than 30 air raids destroyed about 80 per cent of the city's centre, including most of the historic buildings. The attack on the afternoon of 27 February 1945 remains the most destructive of all 33 bombings that Mainz has suffered in World War II in the collective memory of most of the population living then. The air raid caused most of the dead and made an already hard-hit city largely levelled.
![Rathaus Mainz Jockel-Fuchs-Platz](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Rathaus_Mainz_Jockel-Fuchs-Platz.jpg)
Nevertheless, the post-war reconstruction took place very slowly. While cities such as Frankfurt had been rebuilt fast by a central authority, only individual efforts were initially successful in rebuilding Mainz. The reason for this was that the French wanted Mainz to expand and become a model city. Mainz lay within the
French-controlled sector of Germany and it was a French architect and town-planner,
Marcel Lods, who produced a Le Corbusier-style plan of an ideal architecture. But the very first interest of the inhabitants was the restoration of housing areas. Even after the failure of the model city plans it was the initiative of the French (founding of the Johannes Gutenberg
University of Mainz
The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. With approximately 32,000 stud ...
, elevation of Mainz to the state capital of Rhineland-Palatinate, the early resumption of the
Mainz carnival
The Mainz Carnival (''Mainzer Fastnacht'', ''"Määnzer Fassenacht" or "Meenzer Fassenacht"'') is a months-long citywide carnival celebration in Mainz, Germany that traditionally begins on 11 November but culminates in the days before Ash Wednes ...
) driving the city in a positive development after the war. The City Plan of 1958 by
Ernst May
Ernst May (27 July 1886 – 11 September 1970) was a List of German architects, German architect and :German urban planners, city planner.
May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during the Weimar R ...
allowed a regulated reconstruction for the first time. In 1950, the seat of the government of Rhineland-Palatinate had been transferred to the new Mainz and in 1963 the seat of the new ZDF, notable architects were Adolf Bayer, Richard Jörg and Egon Hartmann. At the time of the two-thousand-years-anniversary in 1962 the city was largely reconstructed. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Oberstadt had been extended, Münchfeld and Lerchenberg added as suburbs, the Altstadttangente (
intersection of the old town), new neighbourhoods as Westring and Südring contributed to the extension. By 1970 there remained only a few ruins. The new town hall of Mainz had been designed by
Arne Jacobsen
Arne Emil Jacobsen, Hon. FAIA () 11 February 1902 – 24 March 1971) was a Danish architect and furniture designer. He is remembered for his contribution to architectural functionalism and for the worldwide success he enjoyed with simple we ...
and finished by
Dissing+Weitling
Dissing may refer to:
* Diss (music), song primarily intended to disrespect people
* Dissing+Weitling, architecture and design practice in Copenhagen, Denmark
*Heino Dissing (1912–1990), Danish cyclist
*Henry Dissing (1931–2009), Danish mycolo ...
. The town used Jacobsens activity for the Danish
Novo erecting a new office and warehouse building to contact him. The
urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
of the old town changed the inner city. In the framework of the preparation of the cathedrals millennium,
pedestrian zone
Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...
s were developed around the cathedral, in northern direction to the Neubrunnenplatz and in a southern direction across the Leichhof to the Augustinerstraße and Kirschgarten. The 1980s brought the renewal of the façades on the Markt and a new inner-city neighbourhood on the Kästrich. During the 1990s the Kisselberg between Gonsenheim and Bretzenheim, the "Fort Malakoff Center" at the site of the old police barracks, the renewal of the Main Station and the demolition of the first post-war shopping centre at the Markt followed by the erection of a new historicising building at the same place.
Main sights
![Nave and main altar - Augustinerkirche - Mainz - Germany 2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Nave_and_main_altar_-_Augustinerkirche_-_Mainz_-_Germany_2017.jpg)
*
Romano-Germanic Central Museum (''Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum''). It is home to Roman, Medieval, and earlier artifacts.
*
Museum of Ancient Seafaring (''Museum für Antike Schifffahrt''). It houses the remains of five Roman boats from the late 4th century, discovered in the 1980s.
*Roman remains, including Jupiter's column, Drusus' mausoleum, the ruins of the theatre and the aqueduct.
*
Mainz Cathedral of St. Martin (''Mainzer Dom''), over 1,000 years old.
*
St. John's Church St. John's Church, Church of St. John, or variants, thereof, (Saint John or St. John usually refers to John the Baptist, but also, sometimes, to John the Apostle or John the Evangelist) may refer to the following churches, former churches or other ...
, 7th-century church building
*
Staatstheater Mainz
*The
Iron Tower
The Iron Tower (german: Eisenturm) is a mediaeval tower dating to the early 13th century, and modified in the 15th century, which with the Wood Tower and the Alexander Tower is one of three remaining towers from the city walls of Mainz, Germany. ...
(''Eisenturm'', tower at the former iron market), a 13th-century gate-tower.
*The
Wood Tower (''Holzturm'', tower at the former wood market), a 15th-century gate tower.
*The
Gutenberg Museum
The Gutenberg Museum is one of the oldest museums of printing in the world, located opposite the cathedral in the old part of Mainz, Germany. It is named after Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of printing from movable metal type in Western Euro ...
– exhibits an original Gutenberg Bible amongst many other printed books from the 15th century and later.
*The Mainz Old Town – what's left of it, the quarter south of the cathedral survived World War II.
* The
old arsenal
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
* Old, Baranya, Hungary
* Old, Northamptonshire, England
* Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, ...
, the central arsenal of the fortress Mainz during the 17th and 18th century
*The
Electoral Palace (''Kurfürstliches Schloss''), residence of the
prince-elector
The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, la, Princeps Elector), or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
From the 13th century onwards, the prin ...
.
*The
Marktbrunnen, one of the largest Renaissance fountains in Germany.
*''Domus Universitatis'' (1615), for centuries the tallest edifice in Mainz.
*Christ Church (''
Christuskirche''), built 1898–1903, bombed in 1945 and rebuilt in 1948–1954.
*The
Church of St. Stephan, with post-war windows by
Marc Chagall.
*
Citadel
A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core.
I ...
.
*The ruins of the church
St. Christoph, a World War II memorial
*''Schönborner Hof'' (1668).
*
Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
churches of St. Augustin (the
Augustinerkirche, Mainz) and
St. Peter (the Peterskirche, Mainz).
*Churches of St. Ignatius (1763) and
St. Quintin.
*Erthaler Hof (1743)
*The Baroque
Bassenheimer Hof (1750)
*The
Botanischer Garten der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, a
botanical garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
maintained by the university
*
Landesmuseum Mainz
The Landesmuseum Mainz, or Mainz State Museum, is a museum of art and history in Mainz, Germany. In March 2010 it reopened in full after an extensive renovation.
The museum has its roots in a painting collection donated by Napoleon and Chapta ...
, state museum with archaeology and art.
*Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (
ZDF
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
) – one of the largest public German TV-Broadcaster.
*
New synagogue in Mainz
* Old Jewish Cemetery Mainz (''Judensand'') –
ShUM city of Mainz, UNESCO
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
*Kunsthalle Mainz – museum for contemporary art
*
Humbrechthof, later called Schöfferhof, the building in which Johannes Gutenberg developed his technique of printing
Administration
The city of Mainz is divided into 15 local districts according to the main statute of the city of Mainz. Each local district has a district administration of 13 members and a directly elected mayor, who is the chairman of the district administration. This local council decides on important issues affecting the local area, however, the final decision on new policies is made by Mainz's municipal council.
In accordance with section 29 paragraph 2 Local Government Act of
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
, which refers to municipalities of more than 150,000 inhabitants, the city council has 60 members.
Districts of the town are:
Until 1945, the districts of
Bischofsheim (now an independent town),
Ginsheim-Gustavsburg
The double city of Ginsheim-Gustavsburg in the northwest of the Groß-Gerau district in the German state of Hesse, has about 16,000 inhabitants. It is part of what is called the Rhine-Main region in Germany which has the city of Frankfurt am Main a ...
(which together are an independent town) belonged to Mainz. The former districts
Amöneburg
Amöneburg () is a town in the Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Hesse, Germany. It lies on a mountain and is built around the castle of the same name, ''Burg Amöneburg''.
Geography
Location
Amöneburg lies on a basalt cone that can be seen fr ...
,
Kastel, and
Kostheim
Mainz-Kostheim is a district administered by the city of Wiesbaden, Germany. Its population is 14,381 (). Mainz-Kostheim was formerly a district of the city of Mainz, until the public administration by the city of Wiesbaden was decided on 10 Aug ...
– (in short, ''AKK'') are now administrated by the city of
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
(on the north bank of the river). The AKK was separated from Mainz when the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
was designated the boundary between the French occupation zone (the later state of
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
) and the U.S. occupation zone (
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...
) in 1945.
Coat of arms
The coat of arms of Mainz is derived from the coat of arms of the
Archbishops of Mainz and features two six-spoked silver wheels connected by a silver cross on a red background.
Politics
Mayor
![2019 Mainz mayoral election (2nd round)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/2019_Mainz_mayoral_election_%282nd_round%29.svg)
The current mayor of Mainz is Michael Ebling of the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
(SPD) since 2012. The most recent mayoral election was held on 27 October 2019, with a runoff held on 10 November, and the results were as follows:
! rowspan=2 colspan=2, Candidate
! rowspan=2, Party
! colspan=2, First round
! colspan=2, Second round
, -
! Votes
! %
! Votes
! %
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Michael Ebling
, align=left,
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
, 30,278
, 41.0
, 35,752
, 55.2
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Nino Haase
, align=left,
Independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
(
CDU,
ÖDP,
FW)
, 23,968
, 32.4
, 29,029
, 44.8
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Tabea Rößner
, align=left,
Alliance 90/The Greens
, 16,621
, 22.5
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Martin Malcherek
, align=left,
The Left
, 2,063
, 2.8
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Martin Ehrhardt
, align=left,
Die PARTEI
(''Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative''), or Die PARTEI (''The PARTY''), is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazi ...
, 999
, 1.4
, -
! colspan=3, Valid votes
! 73,929
! 99.6
! 64,781
! 99.4
, -
! colspan=3, Invalid votes
! 289
! 0.4
! 372
! 0.6
, -
! colspan=3, Total
! 74,218
! 100.0
! 65,153
! 100.0
, -
! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout
! 161,967
! 45.8
! 162,030
! 40.2
, -
, colspan=7, Source: City of Mainz
1st round
City council
![2019 Mainz City Council election](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/2019_Mainz_City_Council_election.svg)
The Mainz city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 26 May 2019, and the results were as follows:
! colspan=2, Party
! Votes
! %
! +/-
! Seats
! +/-
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)
, 1,582,459
, 27.7
, 7.5
, 17
, 5
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
, 1,339,561
, 23.5
, 6.9
, 14
, 4
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
(SPD)
, 1,151,572
, 20.2
, 7.2
, 12
, 5
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Free Democratic Party (FDP)
, 340,501
, 6.0
, 0.9
, 4
, 1
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
The Left (Die Linke)
, 335,459
, 5.9
, 1.3
, 4
, 1
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Alternative for Germany (AfD)
, 302,604
, 5.3
, 2.3
, 3
, 1
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Ecological Democratic Party
The Ecological Democratic Party (german: Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei, ÖDP) is a conservative and ecologist minor party in Germany. The ÖDP was founded in 1982.
The strongest level of voting support for the ÖDP is in Bavaria, where in ...
(ÖDP)
, 238,727
, 4.2
, 0.2
, 2
, ±0
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Die PARTEI
(''Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative''), or Die PARTEI (''The PARTY''), is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazi ...
, 127,581
, 2.2
, New
, 1
, New
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Free Voters
Free Voters (german: Freie Wähler, FW or FWG) in Germany may belong to an association of people which participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it involves a locally organized group of voters ...
(FW)
, 108,701
, 1.9
, 0.9
, 1
, ±0
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Pirate Party (Piraten)
, 78,595
, 1.4
, 0.4
, 1
, ±0
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Volt Germany
Volt Germany (, mostly known by the abbreviated name Volt) is a social-liberal pro-European, eurofederalist political party in Germany. It is the German branch of Volt Europa, a political movement that operates on a European level.
Italian And ...
(Volt)
, 67,376
, 1.2
, New
, 1
, New
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Alliance for Innovation and Justice (BIG)
, 31,419
, 0.6
, 0.1
, 0
, ±0
, -
! colspan=2, Total votes
! 5,704,555
! 100.0
!
!
!
, -
! colspan=2, Total ballots
! 100,522
! 100.0
!
! 60
! ±0
, -
! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout
! 162,321
! 61.9
! 11.0
!
!
, -
, colspan=7, Source
City of Mainz
Culture
Mainz is home to a
Carnival, the ''Mainzer Fassenacht'' or ''Fastnacht'', which has developed since the early 19th century. Carnival in Mainz has its roots in the criticism of social and political injustices under the shelter of cap and bells. Today, the uniforms of many traditional Carnival clubs still imitate and caricature the uniforms of the French and Prussian troops of the past. The height of the carnival season is on
Rosenmontag
( en, Rose Monday) is the highlight of the German (carnival), and takes place on the Shrove Monday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Mardi Gras, though celebrated on Fat Tuesday, is a similar event. is celebrated in German-speaking ...
("rose Monday"), when there is a large parade in Mainz, with more than 500,000 people celebrating in the streets.
The first-ever
Katholikentag
''Katholikentag'' () is a festival-like gathering in German-speaking countries organized by laity of the Catholic Church. ''Katholikentag'' festivals occur approximately every 2–4 years in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
''Katholikentag'' ...
, a festival-like gathering of German Catholics, was held in Mainz in 1848.
Johannes Gutenberg, credited with the invention of a modern
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
with movable type, was born here and died here. Since 1968 the
Mainzer Johannisnacht commemorates the person Johannes Gutenberg in his native city. The
Mainz University
The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. With approximately 32,000 st ...
, which was refounded in 1946, is named after
Gutenberg
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (; – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and craftsman who introduced letterpress printing to Europe with his movable-type printing press. Though not the first of its kind, earlier designs w ...
; the earlier University of Mainz that dated back to 1477 had been closed down by Napoleon's troops in 1798.
Mainz was one of three important centres of Jewish theology and learning in Central Europe during the Middle Ages. Known collectively as ''Shum'', the cities of
Speyer
Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer li ...
,
Worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany
Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had ...
and Mainz played a key role in the preservation and propagation of Talmudic scholarship.
The city is the seat of Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (literally, "Second German Television",
ZDF
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
), one of two federal nationwide TV broadcasters. There are also a couple of radio stations based in Mainz. The
Mainzer Stadtschreiber
The Mainzer Stadtschreiber (City clerk in Mainz) is an annual German literature award. It is awarded by ZDF, 3sat and the city of Mainz and was founded in 1984. The award is endowed with €12,500. Additionally the laureate receives the right to l ...
(City clerk in Mainz) is an annual German literature award.
Other cultural aspects of the city include:
*As city in the
Greater Region
SaarLorLux or Saar-Lor-Lux (also ''SarLorLux'' in French), a portmanteau of Saarland, Lorraine and Luxembourg, is a euroregion of five regional authorities located in four European states. The term has also been applied to cooperations of sev ...
, Mainz participated in the program of the year of
European Capital of Culture 2007.
*The
Walk of Fame of Cabaret
The Walk of Fame of Cabaret is a sidewalk between Proviant-Magazin and Schönborner Hof in Mainz, Germany, which is embedded with more than 40 seven-pointed irregularly shaped stars featuring the names of cabaret celebrities selected by a gro ...
may be found nearby the Schillerplatz.
*The
music publisher
A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers started to play a role in the management of the intellect ...
Schott Music is located in Mainz.
*One of the oldest brass instrument manufacturers in the world,
Gebr. Alexander is located in Mainz.
* Fans of Gospel music enjoy the yearly performances of
Colours of Gospel
Colours of Gospel is a German gospel choir that performs throughout Germany and other European countries. Established in Mainz in 1998, the choir is currently conducted by Collins Nyandeje.
The choir been a non-profit, non-denominational ass ...
.
Politics
Mainz (electoral district)
Education
*
University of Mainz
The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. With approximately 32,000 stud ...
*
University of Applied Sciences Mainz
*
Catholic University of Applied Sciences Mainz
Sports
![Coface-Arena (8208664309)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Coface-Arena_%288208664309%29.jpg)
The local football club
1. FSV Mainz 05 has a long history in the German football leagues. Since 2004 it has competed in the
Bundesliga
The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...
(First German soccer league) except a break in second level in 2007–08 season. Mainz is closely associated with renowned coach
Jürgen Klopp
Jürgen Norbert Klopp (; born 16 June 1967) is a German professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Liverpool. He is widely regarded as one of the best managers in the world.
Klopp spent most of his playing ...
, who spent the vast majority of his playing career at the club and was also the manager for seven years, leading the club to Bundesliga football for the first time. After leaving Mainz Klopp went on to win two Bundesliga titles and reaching a
Champions League final with
Borussia Dortmund
Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...
. In the summer of 2011, the club opened its new stadium called
Coface Arena
Mewa Arena (; stylised as MEWA ARENA; also known as the 1. FSV Mainz 05 Arena due to UEFA sponsorship regulations) is a multi-purpose stadium in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, that opened in July 2011. It is used for football matches, an ...
, which was later renamed Opel Arena. Further relevant football clubs are
TSV Schott Mainz,
SV Gonsenheim, Fontana Finthen, FC Fortuna Mombach and FVgg Mombach 03.
The local wrestling club ASV Mainz 1888 is currently in the top division of team wrestling in Germany, the
Bundesliga
The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...
. In 1973, 1977 and 2012 the ASV Mainz 1888 won the German championship.
In 2007 the
Mainz Athletics
The Baseball and Softball Club Mainz Athletics 1988 e.V., commonly referred to as Mainz Athletics, is a German baseball and softball club located in the city of Mainz in Rhineland-Palatinate. The Athletics, along with Regensburg Legionäre, is o ...
won the
German Men's Championship in baseball.
As a result of the 2008 invasion of Georgia by Russian troops, Mainz acted as a neutral venue for the Georgian Vs Republic of Ireland football game.
The biggest basketball club in the city is the ASC Theresianum Mainz. Its men's team is playing in the Regionalliga and its women's team is playing in the 2.DBBL.
USC Mainz
Universitäts-Sportclub Mainz (University Sports Club Mainz) is a German sports club based in Mainz (Germany). It was founded on 9 September 1959 by Berno Wischmann primarily for students of the University of Mainz. It is considered one of the most powerful Athletics Sports clubs in Germany. 50 athletes of USC have distinguished themselves in a half-century in club history at Olympic Games, World and European Championships. In particular in the decathlon dominated USC athletes for decades: Already at the European Championships in Budapest in 1966 Mainz won three (Werner von Moltke, Jörg Mattheis and Horst Beyer) all decathlon medals. In the all-time list of the USC, there are nine athletes who have achieved more than 8,000 points – at the head of Siegfried Wentz (8762 points in 1983) and Guido Kratschmer (1980 world record with 8667 points). The most successful athlete of the association is more fighter, sprinter and long jumper Ingrid Becker (Olympic champion in 1968 in the pentathlon and Olympic champion in 1972 in the 4 × 100 Metres Relay and European champion in 1971 in the long jump). The most famous athletes of the present are the sprinter Marion Wagner (world champion in 2001 in the 4 × 100 Metres Relay) and the pole vaulters Carolin Hingst (Eighth of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing) and Anna Battke.
Three world titles adorn the balance of USC Mainz. For the discus thrower, Lars Riedel attended (1991 and 1993) and the already mentioned sprinter Marion Wagner (2001). Added to 5 titles at the European Championships, a total of 65 international medals and 260 victories at the German Athletics Championships.
The players of USC's basketball section played from the season 1968/69 to the season 1974/75 in the National Basketball League (BBL) of the German Basketball Federation (DBB). As a finalist to winning the DBB Cup in 1971 USC Mainz played in the
1971–72 FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup
The 1971–72 FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup was the sixth edition of FIBA's 2nd-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition, contested between national domestic cup champions, running from 4 November 1971, to 21 March 1972. ...
against the Italian Cup winners of
Fides Napoli.
Mainz Athletics
The Baseball and Softball Club Mainz Athletics is a German baseball and softball club located in the city of Mainz in
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
. The Athletics is one of the largest clubs in the
Baseball-Bundesliga Süd in terms of membership, claiming to have hundreds of active players. The club has played in the Baseball-Bundesliga for more than two decades and has won the German Championship in 2007 and 2016.
Economy
Wine centre
Mainz has been a wine-growing region since Roman times and is one of the centres of the
German wine
German wine is primarily produced in the west of Germany, along the river Rhine and its tributaries, with the oldest plantations going back to the Ancient Rome, Roman era. Approximately 60 percent of German wine is produced in the state of Rhine ...
industry. Since 2008, the city is a member of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network (GWC), an association of well-known wineculture-cities of the world.
Many wine traders work in the city. The
sparkling wine
Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...
producer Kupferberg produced in Mainz-Hechtsheim and
Henkell – now located on the other side of the river Rhine – were once founded in Mainz. The famous
Blue Nun
Blue Nun is a German wine brand launched by the company H. Sichel Söhne (Mainz) in 1923 with the 1921 vintage, and which between the 1950s and 1980s was a very popular international brand. For most of its existence, Blue Nun was a single Germ ...
, one of the first branded wines, was marketed by the Sichel family. The ''Haus des Deutschen Weines'' (English: House of German Wine), is located in the city. The Mainzer Weinmarkt (wine market) is one of the great wine fairs in Germany.
Other industries
The
Schott AG
Schott AG is a German multinational glass company specializing in the manufacture of glass and glass-ceramics. Headquartered in Mainz, Germany, it is owned by the Carl Zeiss Foundation. The company's founder and namesake, Otto Schott, is cre ...
, one of the world's largest glass manufactures, as well as the
Werner & Mertz, a large chemical factory, are based in Mainz. Other companies such as
IBM,
QUINN Plastics, or
Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk A/S is a Danish multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Bagsværd, Denmark, with production facilities in nine countries, and affiliates or offices in five countries. Novo Nordisk is controlled by majority shareholder ...
have their German administration in Mainz as well.
BioNTech
BioNTech SE ( ; or short for Biopharmaceutical New Technologies) is a German biotechnology company based in Mainz that develops and manufactures active immunotherapies for patient-specific approaches to the treatment of diseases. It develop ...
, a
biotechnology
Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...
company developing
immunotherapies including a vaccine against
coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was founded in 2008 in Mainz by scientists
Uğur Şahin
Uğur Şahin (; born 19 September 1965) is a German oncologist and immunologist. He is the CEO of BioNTech, which developed one of the major vaccines against COVID-19. His main fields of research are cancer research and immunology.
Şahin's ...
, and
Özlem Türeci
Özlem Türeci (; born 6 March 1967) is a German physician, scientist and entrepreneur. In 2008, she co-founded the biotechnology company BioNTech, which in 2020 developed the first messenger RNA-based vaccine approved for use against COVID-19 ...
, with the Austrian oncologist Christoph Huber.
Johann-Joseph Krug, founder of France's famous
Krug champagne house in 1843, was born in Mainz in 1800.
Transport
![Blick-auf-mainz-aus-richtung-der-schiersteiner-bruecke](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Blick-auf-mainz-aus-richtung-der-schiersteiner-bruecke.jpg)
Mainz is a major transport hub in southern Germany. It is an important component in European distribution, as it has the fifth largest inter-modal port in Germany. The
Port of Mainz, now handling mainly containers, is a sizable industrial area to the north of the city, along the banks of the Rhine. In order to open up space along the city's riverfront for residential development, it was shifted further northwards in 2010.
Rail
Mainz Central Station
Mainz Hauptbahnhof ("Mainz main station", formerly known as ''Centralbahnhof Mainz''von Meyer, Arthur (1891). ''Geschichte und Geographie der deutschen Eisenbahnen von ihrer Entstehung bis auf die Gegenwart'', W. Baensch, p. 1131) is a railway st ...
or ''Mainz Hauptbahnhof'', is frequented by 80,000 travelers and visitors each day and is therefore one of the busiest 21 stations in Germany. It is a stop for the
S-Bahn
The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban-suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble c ...
line
S8 of the
Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund
The Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) is a transport association that covers the public transport network of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main area in Germany. Its head office is located in Hofheim im Taunus.
Organisation and area covered
The RMV ...
. Additionally, the
Mainbahn
The Main Railway (German: ''Mainbahn'', pronounced 'mine barn') is a 37.5 km-long double-track electrified railway line, which runs on the south side of the river Main from Mainz to Frankfurt central station.
History
Immediately after the openi ...
line to
Frankfurt Hbf starts at the station. It is served by 440 daily local and regional trains (
StadtExpress,
RE and
RB) and 78 long-distance trains (
IC,
EC and
ICE
Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaqu ...
). Intercity-Express lines connect Mainz with Frankfurt (Main),
Karlsruhe Hbf,
Worms Hauptbahnhof and
Koblenz Hauptbahnhof
Koblenz Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the city of Koblenz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is the focal point of rail transport in the Rhine-Moselle-Lahn area. It is a through station in southern Koblenz built below Fort G ...
. It is a terminus of the
West Rhine Railway
The West Rhine railway (German: ''Linke Rheinstrecke'', literally 'left (bank of the) Rhine route') is a famously picturesque, double-track electrified railway line running for 185 km from Cologne via Bonn, Koblenz, and Bingen to Mainz. It ...
and the
Mainz–Ludwigshafen railway
The Mainz–Worms–Ludwigshafen Railway connects Mainz via Worms to Ludwigshafen in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. From there trains cross the Rhine via Mannheim or run south towards Speyer. It was opened in 1853 and is one of the old ...
, as well as the
Alzey–Mainz Railway erected by the
Hessische Ludwigsbahn in 1871. Access to the
East Rhine Railway
The East Rhine Railway (German: ''Rechte Rheinstrecke'', literally 'right (of the) Rhine railway') is a major, double-track, electrified railway line, running along the right bank of the Rhine from Cologne to Wiesbaden. The -long line forms two D ...
is provided by the
Kaiserbrücke, a railway bridge across the Rhine at the north end of Mainz.
Operational usage
Public transportation
The station is an interchange point for the
Mainz tramway network, and an important bus junction for the city and region (
RNN,
ORN
Orn or ORN may refer to:
*Orn (name), a given name and surname
* ''Orn'', the second book in Piers Anthony's trilogy Of Man and Manta
* Offshoring Research Network, an international network researching the offshoring of business processes and ser ...
and
MVG).
Cycling
Mainz offers a wide array of bicycle transportation facilities and events, including several miles of on-street bike lanes. The
Rheinradweg (Rhine Cycle Route) is an international cycle route, running from the source to the mouth of the Rhine, traversing four countries at a distance of . Another cycling tour runs towards Bingen and further to the
Middle Rhine
Between Bingen and Bonn, Germany, the river Rhine flows as the Middle Rhine (german: Mittelrhein) through the Rhine Gorge, a formation created by erosion, which happened at about the same rate as an uplift in the region, leaving the river a ...
, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site (2002).
Air transportation
Mainz is served by
Frankfurt Airport
Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...
, the busiest airport by passenger traffic in Germany by far, the third busiest in Europe and the ninth busiest worldwide in 2009. Located about east of Mainz, it is connected to the city by an
S-Bahn line.
The small
Mainz Finthen Airport
Mainz-Finthen Airport ''(German: Flugplatz Mainz-Finthen)'' is an airport in Germany, located about southwest of Mainz and approximately southwest of Berlin.
The airport serves the general aviation community, with no commercial airline servic ...
, located just southwest of Mainz, is used by
general aviation
General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
only. Another airport,
Frankfurt-Hahn Airport located about west of Mainz, is served by a few
low-cost carriers.
Notable people
*
List of people related to Mainz
This is a list of notable people who were born in or associated with Mainz.
Sons and daughters of the town
(''chronological list'')
* around 780, Rabanus Maurus, † 856, a Benedictine monk, and archbishop of Mainz. He was the author of the enc ...
*
Archbishops of Mainz
*
List of mayors of Mainz
left, 40px
Franz Konrad Macké (1756–1844, Maire and Mayor of Mainz (Lithographie by Gauff)
This is a list of mayors of Mainz, including the Lord Mayors (''Oberbürgermeister von Mainz'') since 1796.
*1796–1800: Fredrick Pongrass
*180 ...
Twin towns – sister cities
Mainz is
twinned with:
*
Watford
Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne.
Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...
, United Kingdom (1956)
*
Dijon
Dijon (, , ) (dated)
* it, Digione
* la, Diviō or
* lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920.
The earlies ...
, France (1957)
*
Zagreb
Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...
, Croatia (1967)
*
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
, Spain (1978)
*
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
, Israel (1981)
*
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
, Germany (1988)
*
Louisville
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
...
, United States (1994)
*
Longchamp, France (1966, with
Mainz-Laubenheim)
*
Rodeneck
Rodeneck (; it, Rodengo ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in South Tyrol in northern Italy.
Geography
Rodeneck borders the following municipalities: Kiens, Lüsen, Mühlbach, Natz-Schabs, St. Lorenzen and Vintl. In Rodeneck there are 7 munici ...
, Italy (1977, with Mainz-Finthen)
Mainz has friendly relations with:
*
Kigali, Rwanda (1982)
*
Baku, Azerbaijan (1984)
Alternative names
Mainz has a number of
different names in other languages and dialects. In
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
it is known as ' or ' and, in the local
West Middle German dialect, it is ''Määnz'' or ''Meenz''. It is known as ' in French, ' in Italian, ' in Spanish, ' in Portuguese, ' in Polish, ''Magentza'' () in Yiddish, and ' in Czech and Slovakian.
Before the 20th century, Mainz was commonly known in English as ''Mentz'' or by its French name of ''Mayence''. It is the namesake of two American cities named
Mentz.
See also
*
Johann Fust
Johann Fust or Faust (c. 1400 – October 30, 1466) was an early German printer.
Family background
Fust was born to burgher family of Mainz, traceable back to the early thirteenth century. Members of the family held many civil and religio ...
*
Johannes Gutenberg
*
Peter Schöffer
Peter Schöffer or Petrus Schoeffer (c. 1425 – c. 1503) was an early German printer, who studied in Paris and worked as a manuscript copyist in 1451 before apprenticing with Johannes Gutenberg and joining Johann Fust, a goldsmith, lawyer, and m ...
, apprentice of Gutenberg and early printer
Notes and references
Sources
*Hope, Valerie. ''Constructing Identity: The Roman Funerary Monuments of Aquelia, Mainz and Nîmes''; British Archaeological Reports (16 July 2001)
*Imhof, Michael and Simone Kestin: ''Mainz City and Cathedral Guide.'' Petersberg:
Michael Imhof Verlag
Michael Imhof Verlag is a German publishing company in Petersberg, Hesse. They are known especially for publishing books with a local interest, on art, on history, politics, religion, nature, and culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which ...
, 2004.
*
''Mainz'' ("Vierteljahreshefte für Kultur, Politik, Wirtschaft, Geschichte"), since 1981
*Saddington, Denis. ''The stationing of auxiliary regiments in Germania Superior in the Julio-Claudian period''
*Stanton, Shelby, ''World War II Order of Battle: An Encyclopedic Reference to U.S. Army Ground Forces from Battalion through Division, 1939–1946'' (Revised Edition, 2006), Stackpole Books
External links
The official web site of the city of Mainz*
*
*
Explore the ShUM Sites of Speyer, Worms and Mainz in the UNESCO collection on Google Arts and Culture*Duchhardt, Heinz
„Römer" in Mainz. Ein Doppelporträt aus der Frühgeschichte der „neuen" Mainzer Universität
{{Authority control
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Populated places on the Rhine
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Roman legionary fortresses in Germany
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