The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz () is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It has been named after the printer

Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg ( – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who invented the movable type, movable-type printing press. Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg's inven ...

since 1946. it had approximately 32,000 students enrolled in around 100 academic programs. The university is organized into 11 faculties. The university is a member of the German U15, a group of fifteen major research and medical universities in Germany. It also participates in the

IT-Cluster Rhine-Main-Neckar The IT cluster Rhine-Main-Neckar, also known as Silicon Valley of Germany, is one of the most important locations of the IT and high-tech industry worldwide. It is concentrated in the Rhine-Main and Rhine-Neckar metropolitan regions. The IT cluste ...

and forms part of the

Rhine-Main-Universities The Rhine-Main Universities (RMU), in German ''Rhein-Main-Universitäten'', is a strategic alliance of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main and Technische Universität Darmstadt. The Rhine ...

(RMU) along with

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University Frankfurt () is a public research university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt ...

and

Technische Universität Darmstadt The Technische Universität Darmstadt (official English name Technical University of Darmstadt, sometimes also referred to as Darmstadt University of Technology), commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a research university in the city of Darmsta ...

. Founded in 1477, it is one of the oldest universities in Europe and one of the most prestigious in Germany.

Faculties

The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz is divided in ten faculties since 07 April 2024. * Faculty of Catholic and Protestant Theology * Faculty of Social Sciences, Media, and Sports * Faculty of Law, Management, and Economics * University Medicine * Faculty of Philosophy and Philology * Faculty of Translation Studies, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies * Faculty of History and Cultural Studies * Faculty of Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science * Faculty of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Geosciences * Faculty of Biology The academies for music and art are independent art colleges of the Johannes Gutenberg University, the Hochschule für Musik Mainz and the .

Campus

The University of Mainz is one of few campus universities in Germany. Nearly all its institutions and facilities are located on the site of a former

barracks Barracks are buildings used to accommodate military personnel and quasi-military personnel such as police. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word 'soldier's tent', but today barracks ar ...

in the south west part of the city. The university medical centre is located off campus, as is the Department of Applied Linguistics and Cultural Sciences, which was integrated with the university in 1949 and is located in

Germersheim Germersheim () is a town in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, of around 20,000 inhabitants. It is also the seat of the Germersheim (district), Germersheim district. The neighboring towns and cities are Speyer, Landau, Philippsburg, Karlsru ...

. On campus next to the university is the

Max Planck Institute for Chemistry The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (Otto Hahn Institute; ) is a non-university research institute under the auspices of the Max Planck Society (German: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) in Mainz, Germany. It was created as the Kaiser Wilhelm Instit ...

, the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, the Institute of Molecular Biology, the electron accelerator MAMI, the research reactor TRIGA, the

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. is ...

, a sports stadium and an indoor swimming pool. Mainz Academy of Arts (''Kunsthochschule Mainz'') is located off campus.

Academic profile

The range of studies is comprehensive; the university lacks some technical studies,

veterinary medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, medical diagnosis, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all a ...

and

nutrition science Nutritional science (also nutrition science, sometimes short ''nutrition'', dated trophology) is the science that studies the physiological process of nutrition (primarily human nutrition), interpreting the nutrients and other substances in food ...

. One can nonetheless study the theology, history of books,

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

, music, visual arts, theatre, and film. Today the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz has approximately 36,000 students () and consists of over 150 institutions and clinics. The university offers international programs, such as the award-winning choir

EuropaChorAkademie The (European Choir Academy) is a German mixed choir, founded by Joshard Daus in 1997 as a group formed by students of two music universities, the University of Mainz and the University of the Arts Bremen. They have performed internationally and ...

, founded by

Joshard Daus Joshard Daus (1947, Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by populati ...

in 1997, in collaboration with the

University of the Arts Bremen The University of the Arts Bremen (German: Hochschule für Künste Bremen, HfK Bremen) is a public university in Bremen, Germany. It is one of the most successful arts institutions, and its origins date back to 1873. The University of the Arts B ...

. One of the instruments carried by the

Mars Exploration Rover NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission was a robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, ''Spirit (rover), Spirit'' and ''Opportunity (rover), Opportunity'', exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rove ...

s '' Spirit'' and ''

Opportunity Opportunity may refer to: Places * Opportunity, Montana, an unincorporated community, United States * Opportunity, Nebraska, an unincorporated community, United States * Opportunity, Washington, a former census-designated place, United States * ...

'', a miniature Mössbauer spectrometer, was developed at the university. The University of Mainz does currently levy fees or tuition (''Studiengebühren'') for a regular course of study. Senior citizen students, auditing students, and certain postgraduate students may be subject to higher fees.

Rankings

As per the

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

for 2024, the university holds the 464th position worldwide and is placed 27th nationally. On the

Times Higher Education World University Rankings The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', often referred to as the THE Rankings, is the annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli Symon ...

, it finds itself within the 251–300 range globally, and falls within the 25–31 range on a national scale in the 2024 edition. In terms of the ARWU World Rankings for 2022, the university is positioned in the 201–300 band internationally, and ranks between 10th and 19th in the country. According to the report of the

German Research Foundation The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bud ...

(DFG) from 2018, the University of Mainz is one of the best universities in

natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

s in Germany. In the period under review from 2014 to 2016, the University of Mainz received the highest number of competitive grants in the

s. The university also achieved the first place in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

. In a competitive selection process, the DFG selects the best research projects from researchers at universities and research institutes and finances them. The ranking is thus regarded as an indicator of the quality of research.

By subject

Notable people

Old University

Johann Joachim Becher Johann Joachim Becher (; 6 May 1635 – October 1682) was a German physician, alchemist, precursor of chemistry, scholar, polymath and adventurer, best known for his ''terra pinguis'' theory which became the phlogiston theory of combustion, and hi ...

, physician, professor of medicine 1663–1664 * Johann Friedrich von Pfeiffer, economist, professor of

cameral science Cameral Science was a comprehensive economic and administrative doctrine developed primarily in German-speaking Central Europe between the 17th and 18th centuries. It provided the intellectual and institutional foundation for the governance of abso ...

1784–1787 *

Andreas Joseph Hofmann Andreas Joseph Hofmann (14 July 1752 – 6 September 1849) was a German philosopher and revolutionary active in the Republic of Mainz. As Chairman of the Rhenish-German National Convention, the earliest parliament in Germany based on the princi ...

, professor of law 1784–1793, president of the first democratically elected parliament in Germany *

Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring (28 January 1755 – 2 March 1830) was a German physician, anatomist, anthropologist, paleontologist and inventor. Sömmerring discovered the macula in the retina of the human eye. His investigations on the bra ...

, professor of anatomy and physiology 1784–1797 *

Georg Forster Johann George Adam Forster, also known as Georg Forster (; 27 November 1754 – 10 January 1794), was a German geography, geographer, natural history, naturalist, ethnology, ethnologist, travel literature, travel writer, journalist and revol ...

, naturalist and world traveller, university librarian 1788–1793

Professors (post 1946)

Karl-Otto Apel Karl-Otto Apel (; ; 15 March 1922 – 15 May 2017) was a German philosopher and Professor Emeritus at the University of Frankfurt am Main. He specialized on the philosophy of language and was thus considered a communication theorist. He develo ...

(philosophy) * Kai Arzheimer (political science) * Thomas Bierschenk (ethnology and sociology) * Herbert Braun (theology) *

Hauke Brunkhorst Hauke Brunkhorst (born 24 October 1945) is a German political sociologist, Professor of Sociology and Head of the Institute of Sociology at the University of Flensburg, Germany. He specializes in European constitutionalism, political theory and Eu ...

(education) *

Micha Brumlik Micha Brumlik (born 1947 in Davos, Switzerland) is professor of education at the Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. From October 2000 to 2005 he was director of the Fritz Bauer Institute for the Study and Documentation of the Histo ...

(education) *

Paul J. Crutzen Paul Jozef Crutzen (; 3 December 1933 – 28 January 2021) was a Dutch meteorologist and atmospheric chemist. In 1995, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside Mario Molina and Frank Sherwood Rowland for their work on atmospheric ...

(chemistry, Nobel Prize 1995) *

Fritz Strassmann Friedrich Wilhelm Strassmann (; 22 February 1902 – 22 April 1980) was a German chemist who, with Otto Hahn in December 1938, identified the element barium as a product of the bombardment of uranium with neutrons. Their observation was the key ...

(physics) *

Jürgen Falter Jürgen or Jurgen is a popular masculine given name in Germany, Estonia, Belgium and the Netherlands. Notable people named Jürgen include: A * Jürgen Ahrend (1930–2024), German organ builder *Jürgen Alzen (born 1962), German race car driv ...

(political science) * Hans Galinsky (American studies) *

Gerhard Grohs Gerhard Grohs (June 24, 1929 - February 18, 2015) was a German sociologist and African studies, African studies scholar. He was one of the pioneers of African Studies in Germany, Professor of Sociology at the Free University of Berlin (1969-75) ...

(African studies) (Sociology) (1975–1994) * Leopold Horner (chemistry) *

Alfred Kröner Alfred Kröner (8 September 1939 – 22 May 2019) was a German Professor of Geology at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Mainz, Germany. He specialized in the Precambrian geology of Africa and geology of China but worked on many other geol ...

(geology) *

Karl Cardinal Lehmann Karl Lehmann (16 May 1936 – 11 March 2018) was a German prelate and cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Mainz from 1983 to 2016, being elevated to the cardinalate in 2001. He served as chairman of the Conference of the ...

(theology) * Carola Lentz (social anthropologist) *

Thomas Metzinger Thomas Metzinger (; born 12 March 1958) is a German philosopher and Professor Emeritus of theoretical philosophy at the University of Mainz. His primary research areas include philosophy of mind, philosophy of neuroscience, and applied ethics, ...

(philosophy) *

Gottfried Münzenberg Gottfried Münzenberg (17 March 1940 – 2 January 2024) was a German physicist. Life and career Gottfried Münzenberg was born on 17 March 1940, into a family of Protestant ministers (father Pastor Heinz and mother Helene Münzenberg). All ...

(physics) *

Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (19 December 1916 – 25 March 2010) was a German political scientist. Her most famous contribution is the model of the spiral of silence, detailed in ''The Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion – Our Social Skin''. The m ...

(communication studies) * W. Pannenberg (theology) * Rolf Peffekoven (economics) * Klaus Rose (economics) * Dorothee Sölle (theology) * Beatrice Weder di Mauro (economics) * Isabel Schnabel (economics) *

Fritz Straßmann Friedrich Wilhelm Strassmann (; 22 February 1902 – 22 April 1980) was a German chemist who, with Otto Hahn in December 1938, identified the element barium as a product of the bombardment of uranium with neutrons. Their observation was the key ...

(nuclear chemistry, discovered

nuclear fission Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactiv ...

with

Otto Hahn Otto Hahn (; 8 March 1879 – 28 July 1968) was a German chemist who was a pioneer in the field of radiochemistry. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry and discoverer of nuclear fission, the science behind nuclear reactors and ...

) *

Werner Weidenfeld Werner Weidenfeld (born 2 July 1947, Cochem) is a German Political science, political scientist. He was a political advisor for Germany–United States relations under different chancellors. He currently serves as rector of the Alma Mater Europaea ...

(political science, former adviser of German chancellor

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as chancellor of Germany and governed the ''Federal Republic'' from 1982 to 1998. He was leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to ...

) *

Jürgen Gauß Jürgen Gauß (Juergen Gauss) is a German theoretical chemist. Gauß was born on 13 August 1960 in Konstanz. He studied chemistry at the University of Cologne from 1979 till 1984. After finishing his PhD thesis on abinitio calculations at the Uni ...

(theoretical chemistry) *

Uğur Şahin Uğur Şahin (; born 19 September 1965) is a German oncologist, immunologist, entrepreneur, and billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder and CEO of BioNTech, which developed the world’s first mRNA-based vaccine against COVID-19.He also ...

(medicine) *

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 Coronavir ...

(medicine) *

Klaus Wälde Klaus Wälde (born 1966) is a German economist and Professor of Economics at the Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz. He is also an extramural fellow at the Université catholique de Louvain and a fellow of the CESifo network. Previously, he was ...

(economics)

Alumni

Alumni of the old University include theologian

Friedrich Spee Friedrich Spee (also ''Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld''; February 25, 1591 – August 7, 1635) was a German Jesuit priest, professor, and poet, most well known as a forceful opponent of witch trials and one who was an insider writing from the epi ...

as well as Austrian diplomat

Klemens von Metternich Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein ( ; 15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859), known as Klemens von Metternich () or Prince Metternich, was a German statesman and diplomat in the service of the Austrian Empire. ...

, who studied law from 1790 to 1792, and revolutionary Adam Lux. Among notable alumni from the post-1946 University of Mainz are German politicians

Malu Dreyer Marie-Luise "Malu" Dreyer (born 6 February 1961) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the 8th minister-president of Rhineland-Palatinate from 2013 to 2024. She is the first woman to hold this office. She serv ...

( SPD, Minister President of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) 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 sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

); Rainer Brüderle ( FDP, Federal Minister for Economics and Technology); (former security advisor to Chancellor

and president of the Munich Conference on Security Policy);

Kristina Schröder Kristina Schröder (''née'' Köhler, born 3 August 1977) is a German politician who served as the Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2009 to 2013. She serve ...

, Federal Minister of Family and Social Affairs; Franz Josef Jung ( CDU, Former Federal Minister of Labor and Social Affairs and former Federal Minister of Defence);

Jens Beutel Jens Beutel (12 July 1946– 8 May 2019) was a German judge and politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), he served as Oberbürgermeister (mayor) of Mainz, the state capital of Rheinland-Pfalz, from 1997 to 2011. During his tenur ...

, Oberbürgermeister (mayor) of Mainz; particle physicist Vera Lüth; nuclear and particle physicist Johanna Stachel; sculptor

Karlheinz Oswald Karlheinz Oswald (born 1958) is a German sculptor known for his portraits and cast iron sculptures, many of dancers, often displayed in public places. He studied at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz from 1981, and between 1983 and 1988 ...

; sports journalist Béla Réthy; political journalist Peter Scholl-Latour; Dieter Stolte, former director-general of

ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

; soprano Elisabeth Scholl; a founder of American

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

cinema

Jonas Mekas Jonas Mekas (; ; December 24, 1922 – January 23, 2019) was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who has been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema". Mekas's work has been exhibited in museums and at festivals world ...

; his brother Adolfas Mekas, film director, writer and educator; mural artist

Rainer Maria Latzke Rainer Maria Latzke (born 28 December 1950) is a German artist working in the field of ''trompe-l'œil'' and mural painting. He taught at the Utah State University and is founder of the Institute of Frescography. Latzke is Honorary Professor of ...

; the German climatologist Wolfgang Seiler; Abbas Zaryab, notable Iranian scholar and historian; Indonesian Toraja Church pastor and politician, Ishak Pamumbu Lambe; Srinivas Kishanrao Saidapur, an Indian reproductive biologist; American educator

Biddy Martin Carolyn Arthur "Biddy" Martin (born 1951) is an American academic, author, and the 19th president of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Before becoming president at Amherst, she was the eighth chancellor of the University of Wisconsin� ...

;

Stanisław Potrzebowski Stanisław Potrzebowski (born 9 February 1937) is the founder and Naczelnik (leader) of Rodzima Wiara, a Polish rodnover organisation, and of the European Congress of Ethnic Religions. Career Between 1954 and 1957 Potrzebowski studied geolog ...

, one of leaders of the ridnovir movement in Poland; German opera singer Christine Esterházy; and Ruth Katharina Martha Pfau, nun, physician and writer who devoted more than 50 years of her life to fighting leprosy in Pakistan.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:University Of Mainz 1470s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1477 establishments in Europe 1946 establishments in Germany Educational institutions established in the 15th century Johannes Gutenberg Universities and colleges established in 1946 Universities and colleges in Rhineland-Palatinate