50°00N 8°16E, pop (2000e) 186 000. Old Roman city and capital of Rheinland-Pfalz province, WC Germany; on left bank of R Rhine opposite mouth of R Main; important traffic junction and commercial centre; railway; university (1477); headquarters of radio and television corporations; centre of the Rhine wine trade; glass materials, electronics, publishing; Gutenberg set up his printing press here; cathedral (mostly 11th13th-c); Mainzer Fastnacht (Shrovetide); tourist river cruises along the Rhine to Cologne.
Coordinates: 50°0′N 8°16′E
| Mainz | |
|---|---|
| Country | Germany |
| State | Rhineland-Palatinate |
| District | urban district |
| Population | 192,170 (2005) |
| Area | 97.75 km² |
| Population density | 1,953 /km² |
| Elevation | 85-285 m |
| Coordinates | 50°0′ N 8°16′ E |
| Postal code | 55001-55131 |
| Area code | 06131, 06136 |
| Licence plate code | MZ |
| Mayor | Jens Beutel (SPD) |
| Website | mainz.de |
Mainz is a city in Germany and the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Mainz is located across the Rhine from Wiesbaden, in the western part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area.
Introduction
Mainz is located on the left bank of the river Rhine, opposite the confluence of the Main river with the Rhine. Population (2002): 183,822 (an additional 18,619 people maintain a primary residence elsewhere but have a second home in Mainz). Until 1945, the districts of Bischofsheim (now an independent town), Ginsheim-Gustavsburg (which together are an independent town) belonged to Mainz. 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 US occupation zone (Hesse) in 1945.
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Satellite photograph of the cities of Wiesbaden and Mainz and the junction of the Main with the Rhine |
The Deutschhaus, the House of Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate |
Kaiserstraße ("Emperor Street") with boulevard |
Theodor Heuss Bridge |
History
Roman Moguntiacum
The Roman stronghold of castrum Moguntiacum, the precursor to Mainz, was founded by the Roman general Drusus in 13 BC.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. 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). 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.
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. 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. Attila went through Alsace in 451, devastating the country and destroying Mainz and Triers with their Roman garrisons. Thereafter, Mainz, in its strategic position, became one of the bases of the Frankish kingdom. Mainz from its central location became important to the empire and to Christianity. 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.
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. The new Archbishop revoked the city charter of Mainz and put the city under his direct rule.
The early Jewish community
The Jewish community of Mainz dates to the 10th century CE. 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.
The 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 22 July 1793; Prussians occupied the city and ended the Republic of Mainz. 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. 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 Rheinhessen was awarded to the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, Mainz being the capital of the new Hessian province Rheinhessen. 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.
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
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 for the expansion of the city. Beginning in 1874, the city of Mainz assimilated the Gartenfeld, an idyllic area of meadows and fields along the shore 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 passed the city by for decades. Having been the master builder of the city of Mainz since 1865, Mr. Kreyßig had the vision of the new part of the town, the Mainz Neustadt; The Mainz master builder constructed a number of state-of-the-art public buildings, including the Mainz town hall — which was the largest one of its kind in Germany at that time — as well a synagogue, the Rhine harbor, and a number of public baths and school buildings.
Mainz in the 20th century
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. In 1923 Mainz participated in the Rhineland separatist movement, which proclaimed a republic in the Rhineland. Some were able to move away from Mainz in time.
In March, 1933, a detachment from the National Socialist Party in Worms brought the party to Mainz.
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 used the ancient strategic gateway through Germania Superior to cross the Rhine south of Mainz, drove down the Danube through Czechoslovakia, ending the possibility of a Bavarian redoubt, and crossed the Alps into Austria, when the war ended. 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 the Friedrich Kellner Diary, is the subject of the Canadian documentary "My Opposition: the Diaries of Friedrich Kellner".
Sights
Roman-Germanic central museum (Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum) – Roman, Medieval, and earlier artifacts Antique Maritime Museum (Museum für Antike Schifffahrt) – the remains of five Roman boats from the late 4th century, discovered in the 1980s Roman remains, like 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 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 citadelMiscellaneous
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. 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. 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.
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.
See also: List of mayors of Mainz
Twinning
Mainz is twinned with:
| - Watford, Hertfordshire (UK), 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 - Louisville, Kentucky (USA), since 1994 |
and is a ‘Friendship city’ to:
- Baku (Azerbaijan), since 1984Alternative names
Mainz is called by a number of different names in other languages and dialects.
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