Mainz ( ) ( ) is a city in Germany
and the
capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate
. It was a politically important seat of the
Prince-elector of Mainz (see:
Archbishopric of Mainz) under
the Holy Roman Empire, and
previously was a Roman fort city which
commanded the west bank of the Rhine
and formed
part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire. Up
until the twentieth century, Mainz was usually referred to in
English as Mayence.
Mainz is a city with over two thousand years of history. The first
European books printed using movable type were manufactured in
Mainz by
Gutenberg in the early
1450s.
It
is located on the river Rhine
across from
Wiesbaden
, in the western part of the Frankfurt
Rhine-Main Region
; in the modern age, Frankfurt
shares much of its regional
importance.
Geography
Mainz is
located on the west bank of the river Rhine, opposite the
confluence of the Main
with the
Rhine. The 2008 population was 196,784, an additional 18,619
people maintain a primary residence elsewhere but have a
second home in Mainz and it is also a part of
the Rhein Metro area consisting of 5.8 million people.
Mainz is easily
reached from Frankfurt International Airport
in 25 minutes by commuter railway (Rhine-Main S-Bahn).
The city
consists of 15 districts: Altstadt, Neustadt, Mombach, Gonsenheim,
Hartenberg-Münchfeld
, Oberstadt, Bretzenheim, Finthen, Drais,
Lerchenberg, Marienborn, Hechtsheim, Ebersheim, Weisenau, and
Laubenheim. Until 1945, the districts of Bischofsheim
(now an independent town), Ginsheim-Gustavsburg
(which together are an independent town) belonged
to Mainz. The former suburbs Amöneburg, Kastel, and
Kostheim—in short AKK—now are administrated by the city of
Wiesbaden (on the north bank of the river).
The AKK
was separated from Mainz when the Rhine was
designated the boundary between the French occupation zone (the
later state of Rhineland-Palatinate) and the U.S. occupation zone (Hesse
) in
1945.
Image:Sattelite Wiesbaden Mainz.jpg|Satellite photograph of the
cities of Wiesbaden and Mainz and the junction of the Main with the
Rhine
Image:Landtagsgebaeude Rheinland
Pfalz.jpg|The Deutschhaus
, the House of Parliament of
Rhineland-PalatinateImage:Christuskirche in
Mainz.jpg|Kaiserstraße ("Emperor Street") with boulevard and
church
Image:Mainz-Theodor-Heuss-Bruecke-2005-05-16a.jpg|Theodor Heuss Bridge
Image:Rathaus mainz1.jpg|City Hall, designed
by
Arne Jacobsen
Climate
Mainz experiences an
oceanic climate
(
Köppen climate
classification Cfb).
Administrative structure
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 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.
Districts of the town are:
Former districts (until the end of WWII):
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.
History
Roman Moguntiacum
Remains of a Roman town gate from the
late 4th century.
The Roman stronghold of
castrum
'Moguntiacum
, the precursor to Mainz, was founded
by the Roman general Drusus
perhaps as early as 13 BC. As related by
Suetonius the existence of
Moguntiacum is well established by four years later (the
account of the death and funeral of Nero Claudius Drusus), though several
other theories suggest the site may have been established
earlier. Although the city is situated
opposite the mouth of the Main river, the
name of Mainz is not from Main, the similarity being perhaps due to
diachronic analogy. Main is from
Latin Menus, the name the Romans used for the
river. Linguistic analysis of the many forms that the
name "Mainz" has taken on, make it clear that it is a
simplification of Moguntiacum.
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 had adopted the Gallic god
Mogons (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.
The Drusus monument (surrounded by the
17th century citadel) raised by Drusus' men to commemorate
him.
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.
All that remains of the Roman
aqueduct.
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.
Frankish Mainz
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 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, 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 I 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.
Christian 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.
Monument to St. Boniface before Mainz
Cathedral.
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
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 (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 persecuted. 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, which was not typical for Mainz only, but for whole Europe
at that time, went on until World War II.
Nowadays the Jewish community is growing rapidly, and a new
synagogue is under construction on the site of the one destroyed
under the
Third Reich. The community
itself has 1,034 members, according to the Central Council of Jews
in Germany, and at least twice as many Jews altogether since many
are unaffiliated with Judaism.
Republic of Mainz
During
the French Revolution, the French
Revolutionary army occupied Mainz in 1792; the Archbishop of Mainz, Friedrich Karl
Josef von Erthal, had already fled to Aschaffenburg
by the time the French marched in. On 18
March 1793, the
Jacobins of Mainz, with
other German democrats from about 130 towns in the
Rhenish Palatinate, proclaimed the
‘
Republic of Mainz’.
Led by Georg Forster representatives of the Mainz
Republic in Paris
requested
political affiliation of the Mainz Republic with France, but too
late: As Prussia was not entirely happy with
the idea of a democratic free state on German soil, Prussian troops
had already occupied the area and besieged Mainz by the end of
March, 1793. After a
siege of 18 weeks, the French troops
in Mainz surrendered on 23 July 1793; Prussians occupied the city
and ended the Republic of Mainz. Members of the Mainz
Jacobin Club were mistreated or imprisoned and
punished for treason.
In 1797, the French returned.
The army of Napoléon Bonaparte occupied the German
territory to the west of the Rhine river, and
the Treaty of Campo Formio
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 river being
the new eastern frontier of la Grande Nation. Austria
and Prussia 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.
Hessian Mainz
In 1816,
the part of the former French Département which is known today as
Rhenish Hesse ( ) 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
Mainz towards the Rhine river (around
1890).
For
centuries the inhabitants of the fortress of Mainz
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 River to the north of the rampart. The city
expansion more than doubled the urban area which allowed Mainz to
participate in the
industrial
revolution 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 Mainz
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 (1838–1903).
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 the 20th century
After
World War I the French
occupied
Mainz between 1919 and 1930 according to the Treaty of Versailles which went into
effect 28 June 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.
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 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.
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 destroyed about 80 percent of Mainz city centre, including
most of the historic buildings. Mainz fell to XII Corps,
90th Division, of the
Third Army under the command of General
George S. Patton, Jr. on 22 March 1945.
Patton used the
ancient strategic gateway through Germania Superior to
cross the Rhine south of Mainz, drive down the Danube towards Czechoslovakia
and end the possibility of a Bavarian redoubt
crossing 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.
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.
Following the withdrawal of French forces from Mainz, the
U.S. Army
Europe occupied the military bases in Mainz.
Today USAREUR only
occupies McCulley Barracks in Wackernheim and the Mainz Sand
Dunes
for training area. Mainz is home to the
headquarters of the
Bundeswehr's
Wehrbereichskommando
II and other units.
Community
Mainz Rad and FSV Mainz 05 flags on the Domplatz
Culture
Sport
The local football club
1. FSV Mainz 05 has a long history in the
German football leagues, but could reach the
Fußball-Bundesliga (First German
soccer league) a few years ago.
It is currently intending to build a new
stadium called Coface
Arena
. In 2007 the Mainz Athletics
won the German Men's
Championsship 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.
Attractions
- 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 1945 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 (the
Augustinerkirche, Mainz) and
St. Peter (the Petruskirche, Mainz).
- Church of St. Ignatius (1763).
- Erthaler Hof (1743).
- The
Botanischer Garten der Johannes
Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
, a botanical
garden maintained by the university
Economy
Wine centre
Mainz is one of the centers of the
German
wine economy as a center for wine trade and the seat of the
state's wine minister. Due to the importance and history of the
wine industry for the federal state, Rhineland-Palatinate is the
only state to have such a department. The city is member of the
Great Wine Capitals Global Network. Many wine traders also 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. The famous
Blue Nun, one of the first branded wines, had been
marketed by the family Sichel.
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.
Other industries
The
Schott AG, 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 or
Novo Nordisk have
their German administration in Mainz as well.
Johann-Joseph Krug, founder of
France's famous
Krug champagne house
in 1843, was born in Mainz in 1800.
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. It will soon shift further northwards to open up
space along the city's riverfront for residential
development.
Miscellaneous
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.
Forum of the
Johannes Gutenberg
University of Mainz.
Johannes 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 in Central Europe 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. The height of the carnival
season is on Rosenmontag ("rose Monday", before
Ash Wednesday), when there is a large parade
in Mainz, with more than 500,000 people 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.
Notable people
International relations
Twin towns — Sister cities
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, Kentucky
 , USA , since
1994
|
Alternative names
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, although
Google Maps and
Google
Earth use it. Other names for this city are:
Magonza
(
Italian),
Maguncia
(
Spanish),
Majnc (
Serbian),
Mogúncia (
Portuguese),
Moguncja (
Polish),
Moguntiacum (
Latin),
Magentza (
Hebrew) and
Mohuč (
Czech,
Slovak).
See also
References and notes
Further reading
- Denis B. Saddington: The stationing of auxiliary regiments
in Germania Superior in the Julio-Claudian period.
- Valerie M. Hope: Constructing Identity: The Roman Funerary
Monuments of Aquelia, Mainz and Nimes; British Archaeological
Reports (16. Juli 2001) ISBN 978-1841711805
- Michael Imhof, Simone Kestin: Mainz City and Cathedral
Guide. Michael Imhof Verlag; (15. September 2004) ISBN
978-3937251936
- Mainz , since 1981
External links
may be found nearby the Schillerplatz.
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