. Mainz is located on the river
.
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 chairmen 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 the Mainz's municipal council.
In accordance with § 29 Par. 2 of Local Government Regulations, which refers to municipalities of more than 150,000 inhabitants, the city council has 60 members.
Main article: Wheel of Mainz Coat of Arms History The Roman stronghold of
castrum Moguntiacum, the precursor to Mainz, was founded by the Roman general
Drusus in
13 BC.
To name the fort after this particular god was an ideological statement. It was placed in the territory of the
Vangiones, a formerly Germanic tribe now Celticised and working for the Romans. Their capital was at
Worms on the same side of the Rhine not far to the south. Dedications of their troops serving in Britain mention the god frequently.
Germania Superior was a geographical gateway between Gaul and Germany. The Romans were saying in essence by placing the fort here and naming it that "You barbarians shall not pass into the civilized and international state because the might of its youth inspired by its ancient god will stop you." If the barbarians needed any example, the previous fate of the Vangiones, who had come as conquerors and were conquered, was before them.
Moguntiacum 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
Moguntiacus grew up between the fort and the river. The castrum was the base of
Legio XIIII Gemina and
XVI Gallica (AD
9–
43),
XXII Primigenia,
IIII Macedonica (43–
70),
I Adiutrix (70-
88),
XXI Rapax (70-
89), and
XIIII Gemina (70–
92), among others. Mainz was also the base of a Roman river fleet (the remains of Roman patrol boats and cargo barges from about 375/6 were discovered in 1982 and may now be viewed in the
Museum für Antike Schifffahrt). 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. Among the famous buildings were the largest
theatre north of the Alps and a bridge across the rhine.
Alamanni forces under Rando sacked the city in 368. In last days of 406, the Siling and Asding
Vandals, the
Suebi, the
Alans, and other Germanic tribes took advantage of the rare freezing of the Rhine to cross the river at Mainz and overwhelm the Roman defences. Christian chronicles relate that the bishop, Aureus, was put to death by the Alamannian Crocus. The way was open to the sack of
Trier and the invasion of Gaul. This event is familiar to many from the historical novel,
Eagle in the Snow, by
Wallace Breem.
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 raised by his legionaries to commemorate Drusus.
Roman Moguntiacum Through a series of incursions during the 4th century Alsace 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 reasserted 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, who relied heavily on his
Magister militum per Gallias,
Flavius Aëtius. By that time the army included large numbers of troops from the major Germanic confederacies along the Rhine, the Alamanni, the
Saxons and the
Franks. 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, which they possessed anyway, and imposing service in the Roman army in exchange.
The European chessboard in the time of master Aëtius included Celts, Goths, Franks, Saxons, Alamanni, Huns, Italians, and Alans as well as numerous minor pieces. 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 Triers with their Roman garrisons. Shortly after he was stalemated by
Flavius Aëtius at the
Battle of Chalons, the largest of the ancient world.
Aëtius was not to enjoy the victory long. He was assassinated by his employer's own hand in 454, who was himself 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, became emperor, taking the name Patrician. His father was a Suebian; his mother, a princess of the
Visigoths. Patrician did not rule the north directly but set up a client province there, which functioned independently. The capital was at
Soissons. Even then its status was equivocal. Many insisted it was the
Kingdom of Soissons.
Previously the first of the
Merovingians,
Clodio, 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. They also moved up the Rhine and created a domain in the region of the former Germania Superior with capital at
Cologne. They became known as the
Ripuarian Franks as opposed to the
Salian Franks. It is unlikely that much of a population transfer or displacement occurred. The former Belgae simply became Franks.
Events moved rapidly in the late 5th century. Clovis, son of Childeric, became king of the Salians in 481, ruling from
Tournai. In 486 he defeated
Syagrius, last governor of the Soissons domain, and took northern France. He extended his reign to
Cambrai and
Tongeren in 490-491, and repelled the Alamanni is 496. Also in that year he converted to non-Arian Christianity.
After the
Fall of the Roman Empire in
476, the
Franks under the rule of
Clovis I gained control over western Europe by the year
496. 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 reinforced the walls of Mainz and made it one of his seats. A
solidus of
Theodebert I (534-548) was minted at Mainz.
The Franks united the Celtic and Germanic tribes of Europe. The greatest Frank of all was
Charlemagne (768-814), who built a new empire in Europe, the
Holy Roman Empire. 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.
Frankish Mainz In the early
Middle Ages, Mainz was a centre for the
Christianisation of the
German and
Slavic peoples. The first Archbishop in Mainz,
Boniface, was killed in
754 while trying to convert the Frisians to Christianity and is buried in
Fulda. Other early archbishops of Mainz include
Rabanus Maurus, the scholar and author, and
Willigis (
975–
1011), who began construction on the current building of the
Mainz Cathedral and founded the monastery of St. Stephan.
From the time of Willigis until the end of the
Holy Roman Empire 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 today is the only
diocese in the world with an
episcopal see that is called a
Holy See (
sancta sedes). The Archbishops of Mainz traditionally were
primas germaniae, the substitutes of the
Pope north of the
Alps.
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, who was elected Archbishop by the
cathedral chapter and supported by the citizens, and Adolf II von
Nassau, who had been named Archbishop for Mainz by the
Pope. In
1462, the Archbishop Adolf II 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 II. Those who would not promise to follow Adolf II (amongst them
Johann 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.
Christian Mainz The Jewish community of Mainz dates to the 10th century CE. It is noted for its religious education. Rabbi
Gershom ben Judah (960-1040) taught there, among others. He concentrated on the study of the
Talmud, creating a German Jewish tradition. The Jews of Mainz,
Speyer and
Worms 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 sense, in a bipolar fashion towards them. Sometimes they were allowed freedom and were protected; at other times, they were massacred or expelled. For example, they were expelled in 1462, invited to return and expelled again in 1474. Outbreaks of the
Black Death were usually blamed on the Jews, at which times they were massacred. This unstable pattern went on up to World War II.
Nowadays the Jewish community is growing rapidly, and is considering the creation of a new synagogue.
The early Jewish community Main article: Republic of Mainz The republic of Mainz In 1816, the part of the former French Département which is known today as
Rhenish Hesse (
German:
Rheinhessen) was awarded to the
Hesse-Darmstadt, Mainz being the capital of the new
Hessian province of Rhenish Hesse. From 1816 to 1866, to the
German Confederation Mainz was the most important fortress in the defence against France, and had a strong garrison of
Austrian and
Prussian troops.
In 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, and this defined the new border between the two countries.
Industrial expansion After the end of
World War I, Mainz was occupied by the
French between
1919 and
1930, according to the
Treaty of Versailles, which went into effect
June 28 1919. The
Rhineland (in which Mainz is located) was to be a demilitarized zone until 1935, and the French garrison, representing the
Triple Entente, was to stay until reparations were paid.
The reparations were not paid and Germany preferred to wreck its economy through inflation than to pay them. In 1923 Mainz participated in the Rhineland separatist movement, which proclaimed a republic in the Rhineland. It collapsed in 1924. The French withdrew on
June 30 1930.
Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January, 1933. 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.
In March, 1933, a detachment from the
National Socialist Party in
Worms 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 forces of the
Third Reich reentered the Rhineland with a great fanfare, the first move of the Third Reich's meteoric expansion. The former Triple Entente took no action.
During
World War II the citadel at Mainz hosted the Oflag XII-B prisoner of war camp.
The Bishop of Mainz formed an organization to help Jews escape from Germany.
During
World War II, more than 30 air raids and bomb attacks destroyed about 80% of the inner city of Mainz, including most of the historic buildings. Mainz fell on
March 22 1945, to XII Corps, 90th Division, of the Third Army under the command of General George S. Patton, Jr. The forces of the 3rd Reich were defending it against a possible Rhine crossing there. It was the end of the Palatinate campaign. Patton used the ancient strategic gateway through Germania Superior to cross the Rhine south of Mainz, drove down the
Danube towards
Czechoslovakia, ending the possibility of a Bavarian redoubt, and crossed the Alps in Austria, when the war ended. With regard to the Roman road over which Patton attacked Trier, he said:
one could almost smell the coppery sweat and see the low dust clouds where those stark fighters moved forward into battle. (George S. Patton,
War as I Knew It)
From
1945 to
1949, the city was part of the French zone of occupation. When the federal state of
Rhineland-Palatinate was founded on
18 May 1947,
Koblenz was the temporary capital; in
1950 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.
Mainz in the 20th century As city in the
Greater Region, Mainz participates in the program of the year of
European Capital of Culture 2007.
The
Walk of Fame of Cabaret may be found nearby the Schillerplatz.
Culture Roman-Germanic central museum (
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum). It is home to Roman, Medieval, and earlier artifacts.
Antique Maritime Museum (
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.
The Iron Tower (
Eisenturm, tower at the former iron market), a tower from the 13th century.
The Wood Tower (
Holzturm, tower at the former wood market), a tower from the 14th century.
The
Gutenberg Museum – 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
Electoral Palace (
Kurfürstliches Schloss), residence of the
prince-elector .
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
'45 and rebuilt in
1948–
1954.
The Church of St. Stephan, with post-war windows by
Marc Chagall.
Citadel.
Schönborner Hof (1668).
Rococo churches of St. Augustin and St. Peter.
Church of St. Ignatius (1763).
Erthaler Hof (1743).
Main sights Economy Mainz is one of the centers of the
German wine economy as a center for wine trade and the seat of the wine minister. Due to the importance of the wine industry for the federal state, Rhineland-Palatinate is the only state to have a wine minister in his capital city. Many wine traders work in the town. The
sparkling wine producer Kupferberg produces in Mainz-Hechtsheim and even Henkell - now located on the other side of the river Rhine - had been founded once in Mainz.
Mainz had been a wine growing region since Roman times and the image of the wine town Mainz is fostered by the tourist center. The
Haus des Deutschen Weines (English: House of the German Wine), is located in beside the theater. It is the seat of the German Wine Academy, the German Wine Institute (DWI) and the German Wine Fund (DWF). The Mainzer Weinmarkt (wine market) is one of the great wine fairs in Germany.
Mainz, town of the German wine 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 area is now a nature reserve with a unique landscape and rare
steppe vegetation for this area.
Johann Gutenberg, credited with the invention of the modern
printing press with movable type, was born here and died here. The
Mainz University, which was refounded in
1946, is named after
Gutenberg; 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 centers of
Jewish theology and learning during the Middle Ages. Known collectively as
Shum, the cities of
Speyer,
Worms and Mainz played a key role in the preservation and propagation of Talmudic scholarship. (
See also: Gershom ben Judah)
Mainz is famous for its
Carnival, the
Mainzer Fassenacht or
Fassnacht, 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. On The height of the carnival season is on Rosenmontag ("rose Monday", before
Ash Wednesday), there is a large parade in Mainz, more than 500,000 people are celebrating in the streets.
The first ever
Katholikentag, a festival-like gathering of German Catholics, was held in Mainz in 1848.
The city is well-known in Germany as the seat of Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (literally, "Second German Television",
ZDF), one of two federal nationwide TV broadcasters. There are also a couple of radio stations based in Mainz.
According to legend, Mainz is the supposed birthplace of
Pope Joan (John Anglicus), the woman who, disguised as a man, was elected pope, and served for two years during the
Middle Ages.
Miscellaneous List of people related to Mainz Archbishops of Mainz List of mayors of Mainz People related to Mainz Mainz is
twinned with:
Watford,
United Kingdom, since 1956
Dijon,
France, since 1957
Longchamp,
France, since 1966
Zagreb,
Croatia, since 1967
Rodeneck/
Rodengo,
Italy, since 1977
Valencia,
Spain, since 1978
Haifa,
Israel, since 1981
Erfurt, former
East Germany, since 1988
Baku,
Azerbaijan, since 1984
-
Louisville,
USA, since 1994
Twinning Mainz is called by a number of
different names in other languages and dialects. These include:
Määnz (formerly
Meenz) in the local
West Middle German dialect, and
Mentz in
English or
Mayence in
French. The latter name was also used in English, but this usage of Mayence has almost completely disappeared. Other names for this city are:
Magonza (
Italian),
Maguncia (
Spanish),
Majnc (
Serbian),
Mogúncia (
Portuguese),
Moguncja (
Polish),
Moguntiacum (
Latin), and
Mohuč (
Czech,
Slovak).
Literature
The modern Clan
Modern sources of legislation
Work
Molecular size
History
