History of Mainz

Founded by the Roman , the town of Mainz has a heritage of more than two millenia. It draws its origin from the Roman camp of Mogontiacum , and became then capital higher province of Germanie and sits of archbishop's palace of 780 /82 with 1803. She knew one period of blooming between 1244 and 1462, when she had the free statute of city. Thereafter, its history was marked by the princes voters and the archbishops of Mainz which resided in the city. After the end of this time, Mainz mainly lost its importance of strengthened city. In 1950, Mainz became capital Land of the Rhineland-Palatinat.

Prehistory

The first traces of human life in the area of Mainz go back to 20.000 to 25.000 years. In 1921, a place of halt for hunters dating from the last glacial period was put at the day in the street Linsenberg . This site is an important vestige for the specialists since it is about the oldest trace of human presence in the area close to Mainz.

Thanks to the the Rhine, which right from the start constitutes a vital artery of the city, a cultural life and popular rich took seat on the site of current Mainz, and was stretched in particular since the end of the age of the stone, around 1800 av. J. - C., until the Bronze Age.

During second half of first century BC, the Celtes constituted the main force on banks of the higher Rhine. They also populated the area of Mainz and named this colony according to one their gods, Mogon , to which one cannot however attach the current name of the city. Starting from this designation, the Romans who arrived thereafter formed the name of the city “ Mogontiacum ” ( Mog' u' ntiacum according to Tacite).

In 75 av. J. - C., the Germains arrived finally under the command of Arioviste in the surroundings of Mainz, where they crossed the Rhine in direction of Gaulle. The Celtes living hitherto on banks of the average Rhine were driven back in the area of Mainz, which was under the influence of the tribe of the Trévires, a branch of the Celtic tribes remaining until the arrival of the Romans relative to the variation. After the War of Gaules, which ended with the battle of Alesia in 52 av. J. - C., the Roman Empire under Jules César then Auguste was directed in the direction of the Rhine and the Germanic one. The Romans initially conquered the area of left bank of the Rhine, before subjecting the Germanic one on the Right Bank ( Magna Germania ). One of the camps which was set up on the edges of the Rhine during this countryside by Nero Claudius Drusus was subsequently arranged and became Mogontiacum. The city thus constitutes one of oldest the German cities.

The Roman epoch

Mogontiacum belonged during almost 500 years to the Roman Empire. The fact that the strengthened camp was founded before 38 av. J. - C. is not demonstrable archaeologically and is not now bearable any more. However, because of former assumptions, this date is regarded as the official date of foundation of the city. The proven beginning of the Roman history of Mainz is gone back to 13/12 av.  J. - C. Within the framework of the expansion policy of the Roman Empire in direction of Germanic, a camp of legionaries was founded (at the latest) at that time with the mouth of the the Rhine, also being used as permanent delegation of the Roman capacity to the Rhine. Drusus of it was responsible until its death in 9 av.   J. - C.

Until 90 ap.  J. - C., two legions, (at the beginning Legio XIV  Geminated and Legio XVII  Gallica), were stationed in the camp then only one Roman Légion (Legio XXII  Primigenia Pia Fidelis - the legion “of Mainz”) remains, until the middle of the 4th century ap.  J. - C. During the preparation of several campaigns towards the Germanic one, to four legions, as well as auxiliary Troops, stationed in Mainz. Part of these additional troops was confined in a second large military camp, which was employed until the end of the 1st century ap.  J. - C. It was located close to Weisenau at the place of the current career, but there is not any more any archaeological trace. The succession of the legions until towards 90 can be summarized as follows: before 42-43: XIV  Geminated and XVI  Gallica, from 43 to 70: IV  Macedonica and XXII  Primigenia; from 70 to approximately 85: I  Adiutrix and XIV  Geminated. Towards 85, the XXI  Rapax replaces I  Adiutrix, it was perhaps in Weisenau for some time. After its dissolution towards 89-90, XIV  Geminated remained only in garrison. During the Nineties, towards 96 it, XXII  seems; Primigenia replaced it and remained alone in garrison in Mainz.

The military base of Mogontiacum also attracted tradesmen, craftsmen and landlords. The people living around the camp did not have any civic right however and were dependant on the command of the site. The principal camp, to which the name of the district Kästrich refers, was built as the remainder of the Roman camps remaining, with two streets crossing ( Via praetoria , Via principalis , Via decumana ) and four doors ( Porta praetoria , Porta decumana , Porta principalis will dextra , Porta principalis will sinistra ).

After the disastrous defeat of Varus to the Battle of Teutoburg in 9 ap.  J. - C., the Rhine became during a certain time the frontier river separating the Germanic one from the Empire. In 89 ap.  J. - C., after the repression of the revolt of Saturninus, the city became, in addition to its military function as a more important camp of the army at the border, the civil administrative center and the capital of the Roman province lately created higher Germanie. The province dominated the higher Rhine until Coblentz, which was called formerly Confluentes. At North was located the lower Province of Germanie, with Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (Cologne) like capital. A vast program of construction under the house of the emperors Flaviens (reinforcement of the camp by stone, construction of the Aqueduct of Mainz and pillars of stone bridges, more solid), as well as the conquest of the Wetterau and the beginning of the construction of the Limes marked the development of Mogontiacum at the 1st century ap.  J. - C.

Thereafter, Mainz opens out, but the city never reaches the statute of Cologne or Trier. The tradesmen made thrive the city; however the city and its area were more and more frequently threatened by the invasion of tribes like the Chattes, the Alamans and the Vandales, in particular after the fall of the Files in 258 ap.  J. - C. That led to the loss of the area of the Limes located on Right Bank of the Rhine, and Mogontiacum became again a frontier city. At the 3rd century and later at the 4th century, the Christianisme made its entry in the city. In 343, it became for the first time a évêché under Martinus (Marinus). It is supposed that Christianity was introduced more precociously, but there is of it no historical proof.

During the same century, the decline of the Romain Empire became increasingly sensitive. Alamans in particular threatened Mainz and occupied the city in 352/355. Other invasions took place during the years 357, 368 and 370. Julien the Apostate took again the city in Alamans in 357 ap.  J. - C. and reinforced the fleet from the Rhine in Mainz (vestiges of the quays of the ancient Port on the Rhine with the locality “Dimesser Ort”). The wall of the city already rebuilt at the 3rd century was destroyed then rebuilt again in second half of the 4th century. In the night of the new year 407, the Vandals invaded the city and shaved it. Lastly, in 451, the Huns conquered the city but did not cause great damage, according to last research. But the time of Roman Mainz was from now on completed. The Francs seized the power and incorporated Mainz in their empire until the end of the 5th century.

Mainz under Mérovingiens, the Carolingians and Ottoniens

Towards the end of the 5th century, a fight began between the Francs and the Alamans - the second more important tribe of the area - for supremacy on the old Roman area. In 496 /497, Clovis, the king of the Francs, dynasty of the Mérovingiens , was made baptize following a wish. Clovis drove out Alamans of the area thereafter. He became king of Franconie Western and Gaulle, and later, of the frank kingdom of Cologne, to which Mainz probably belonged. Mainz thus formed part of a great frank empire and, of city-border, became an interior city. As from this time, but especially under the bishop Sidonius (534 - 547), Christianity opens out in the city and of constructions remade their appearance. With 7th and 8th centuries, monks Anglo-Saxon Benedictines established a mission. Most important of these missionaries was the Archevêque missionary Boniface, originating in the Wessex, which relieved in 744 Gewilib, shown to devote itself to unworthy acts of vendetta, and took its place of bishop of Mainz. Boniface, as an archbishop of Mainz, directed the christianization of the Hesse and the Frise. Under its Lullus successor, the diocese was high in archdiocese towards 780/782. The church of Mainz developed and became the largest ecclesiastical province in the north of the Alps, which accentuated the importance of the city.

Under Charlemagne, the Carolingiens reached their apogee. Charlemagne made set up near Mainz, in Ingelheim, one of its imperial residences. The discovery of a fragment of throne dating from second half of the 7th century lets suppose that an imperial palace also existed in Mainz even. Charlemagne held several assemblies in Mainz, which became a tradition followed during several centuries, and culminated in 1184, under the reign of the emperor Frederic Barberousse. Mainz was offered like place of assembly, since it had already a vast church (75 meters length), the abbey of Saint-Alban, in whom the assemblies could take seat, and which developed during the 200 following years to become the spiritual center of the Diocèse. As the christianization of Slavic and other people of the east by Mainz advanced quickly, the city became an important node of communication of the empire, not only with regard to the policy and the religion, but also for the economy. In particular, the merchants made the city prosperous. The principal development related to however the field of the religion, led by the successive archbishops. Among the immediate successors of Lullus, one of most important was Rabanus Maurus, which became bishop in 847 and under which the development of Mainz knew a first culminating point as a significant spiritual center.

After having pushed back the incursions of the Normands at the 9th century, the time began under which Mainz was gratifiée name of Aurea Moguntia (gilded Mainz), and from which the archbishop carried the title of “archbishop of the Holy See” of Mainz, honorary private individual titrates that today only the Holy See of Rome division. Mainz became the seat of the pontifical representative beyond the Alps.

In 975, the most important man of the church of the time, in the person of Willigis, became archbishop, then archi-chancellor of the Saint Germanic Roman Empire; and it links this dignity under archbishop. It was a figure-key of the time of the Ottoniens which supported the ecclesiastical provinces and their bishops. Of 991 with 994, Willigis was as a tutor of Otton III administrator of the empire and joins together in Mainz the highest spiritual powers and temporal; consequently, the payment of the tributes did of Mainz one of évêchés richest of its time. Moreover, Willigis made set up the large Romance cathedral of Mainz which was to become an obvious demonstration of the internal Church to the empire and mark still today the town planning of Mainz. Mainz is described in the historical writings of this time like Diadema regni (crown of the empire) and Aureum caput regni (gilded head of the empire).

The development started at the 9th century knew with Willigis its finishing, and made of the archbishop of Mainz the leader of the city. It indicated a Landgrave (later Burgrave) which managed the city for him. Mainz became metropolis archiépiscopale and remained it until the end of the Saint Worsens Roman Germanic, except between 1244 and 1462.

Center talmudic study

Towards the An Millet the Jewish community of the valley of the the Rhine develops. Magenza, Hebrew Mainz, accommodates a center of study famous Talmudique attracting students coming from Spain and Italy. Its founder Rabbenou Guershom Ben Yeouda (960 - 1028) convenes a council bringing together the scholars Ashkénaze S and the chiefs of each community. The synod votes new laws on the marriage and the divorce, of which one prohibits the Polygamie. Another, adopted during a later synod, stipulates that a husband cannot divorce without the assent his wife. The synod reaffirms that all the Juifs are in the obligation to yield with the jurisdiction of the local Jewish courts. He declares that an individual seeing itself entrusting a letter for another recipient does not have the right to read it. Rabbenu Gershom will create other laws, like that consisting in questioning the newcomers before admitting them in a community in order to make sure of their faith and their morality (and with an aim not acknowledged to draw aside them from the commercial competition). It prohibits that one insults the Apostat S which returned to the Judaïsme and which one writes of the comments in the margins of the Talmud. He regards the Christians as idolâtres, but authorizes the commercial transactions with them (by need).

Mainz during the Low Middle Ages

The title of archi-chancellor of the Archevêque and the right of this one to elect the making emperor of Mainz one of the most important places of the Saint Worsens Roman, even a hearth of the imperial policy, which was the case in particular during Bottom Moyen-âge. The archbishop Adalbert Ier of Saarbrucken held enough being able to reform the imperial right to vote in 1125. As from this time, the vote was limited either to all the princes, but only to 10 of them resulting from the four provinces of Franconie, of Saxony, Souabe and Bavaria. In 1257, this number was tiny room to 7, a convention which was preserved until the end of the empire with a light modification (transfer of the right to vote of the Count Palatine to the duke of Bavaria, and later creation of an eighth cure for the Count Palatine). One two was the archbishop of Mainz, which was consequently also called Prince-Voter.

Adalbert granted for the first time to alive Mayençais in the enclosure of the walls of the city of the particular civic rights, in particular independence with respect to the external jurisdictions, and the privilege to have to pay any royalty with the external provost S at the city. The stating of this right was made public thereafter while being engraved in the bronze doors of the cathedral. However, the privileges were lost in 1160, when the inhabitants assassinated the archbishop Arnold von Selenhofen because of a dissension concerning the taxes. The emperor Frederic Barberousse made because that dismantle the walls of the city. In 1160, Raoul de Zähringen was called as successor by the citizens mayençais. But as of 1184, Frederic Barberousse returned to Mainz to organize a news Croisade during the known diet under the name of Hoftag Jesu Christi (diet of Jesus Christ). Under the archbishops of the house of Eppstein in particular (starting from 1208), Mainz developed again and became again a particularly important place of the empire. In 1212, Siegfried II of Eppstein crowned most outstanding of the Hohenstaufen, Frederic II in the cathedral of Mainz. The archbishops of Eppstein in addition made advance the construction of the fortifications of the city.

The persecution of the Jews of 1096

The persecution of the Jews, and them Pogrom, coincided as in the majority of the empire with the Croisade S. the most terrible pogrom was that of 1096. After the crusade was completed, of serious disorders occurred in France. Important armies irregular were formed there, wanting “to release” their country of the Jews, before leaving in Holy Land. After Mayençais had initially reduced the danger, they forced the lifting of an army in front of Worms and later in front of their own city to also act. When the count Emicho de Flonheim, radical character and hating the Jews, appeared with his army in front of the city, the Ruthard archbishop, appearing unable to face the count, deserted the city. The Jews of Mainz tried to divert the archbishop of its projects with gifts of money. After the unexplained murder of Mayençais, it was easy in Emicho to attract oneself the good graces of the citizens of the city. Those opened the doors of the city once the fallen night. The Jews took refuge in the residence archiépiscopale, where Ruthard was to guarantee their safety. But it was there a responsibility which it could not ensure, since it escaped soon; and the Jews were delivered to their prosecutor. Not to fall between its hands, they achieved a collective suicide. Only some 53 Jews could be saved by the 300 men of the guard of the Archevêque, and left towards Rüdesheim amndt Rhein where they were nevertheless delivered by the crusaders. The Ruthard archbishop was not any more the Master of the places. Finally, 1014 Jews died, which corresponded to 90% of the community of the time.

The emperor Henri IV issued the reconstitution of the community thereafter. As the fortune of the Jews was not found, the incomes of the archbishop were confiscated. The Jewish population is completely restored this pogrom during bottom Moyen-âge.

Pentecost de Barberousse in 1184

The diet held by Frederic Barberousse at Pentecost 1184 account among the principal diets of all Middle Ages. The reason was the Adoubement of its sons Henri and Frederic. More 40  000 knights went to Mainz which could not contain such a crowd, so much and so that the knights had to camp on islands in edge of the Rhine. Almost all the princes and the entirety of the spiritual elite took share with the festival, among which dukes of Bohemia, of Austria, and Saxony, the Count Palatine and the landgrave of Thuringe, archbishops of Trier, Bremen and Besancon, as well as the bishops of Ratisbon, Cambrai, Liege, Metz, Toul, Verdun, Utrecht, Worms, Spire, Strasbourg, Basle, Constance, Coire, Würzburg, Bamberg, Münster , Hildesheim and Lubeck. A chronicler wrote about the festival that “it was largest which was ever celebrated in Germany”.

The apogee of Mainz: the free city (1244 - 1462)

Frederic II represses the 1235 rebellion of his/her son Henri, king of the Romans. It makes it captive and its other to him Conrad wire in 1237 substitutes. This last ensures the regency of Germany under the supervision of Siegfried III von Eppstein, archbishop of Mainz.

In 1236, the emperor again granted to the citizens of Mainz rights resembling to those of Adalbert. Supported by the conflict opposing Frederic II to the pope, Mayençais were courted by the two enemy parties. They thus obtained in 1242 of the king Conrad IV the right to establish customs. Nevertheless, they changed camp shortly after and they obtained the November 13rd 1244, for reasons completely not cleared up, another privilege: the sovereignty of the city on behalf of the archbishop Siegfried III of Eppstein. That included/understood not only the confirmation of the preceding privileges, but also the constitution of a Parliament of 24 elected officials. Moreover, the obligation of Conscription was repealed, and the citizens mayençais were not held more of military service, except for the defense of the city, and did not have to finance the wars any more. As powerful the chapter of the cathedral of Mainz also guaranteed the safeguard of the privileges, even after the election of the archbishops to come, Mainz, although the archbishop remained leading city, became de facto “city free” . Only members of the houses patricians of Mainz were allowed at the Parliament of the city.

After the concession of the free statute of city, one brilliant time began for the city with the Early middle ages. The development of the Rhenish league starting from 1254 and the reputation which resulted from this for Mainz, made the city famous through the empire. Mainz became the hearth of the political activity and ecclesiastical, whose testimony is construction many cloisters (to 26 cloisters were installed in Mainz). After the end of the period of Interregnum in 1273, the city could again open out. Thanks to the security of the roads of exchange after the reformation of the central capacity (though it was reduced), the trade could develop.

On the political plan, the archbishop Pierre d' Aspelt (1306 - 1320) was particularly recognized within the empire. In addition to the crowning of Jean of Luxembourg to the head of Bohemia (which belonged until in 1348 to the ecclesiastical province of Mainz), it supported the choice of Louis of Bavaria as emperor, which also satisfied the city and the middle-class, which obtained in 1317 the Kaufhausprivileg (right to establish stores). At the same time, the emperor ordered the Rhenish Landfrieden (Rhenish peace), which was to offer a protection to the cereal imports after the famines.

The Rhenish league

With died of Frederic II opened one period of interregnum without emperor. The absence of central capacity caused in the empire of the power struggles and of civil small wars. As bands of petty thieves and brigands were formed in the country, Mayençais and the inhabitants of Worms decided in 1253 to draw a feature on their dissensions. In February 1254, they established an alliance of mutual protection which extended quickly to Oppenheim and with Bingen. This union, in the local beginning, was extended thereafter to many cities and areas of the average Rhine and the higher Rhine. At the end of two years, the Rhenish league included already most of current Germany. The political power was held in major part by Mainz and Worms. This union was of nature political, economic and military, it was above all to restore the safety of the trade in goods threatened. In 1255, it obtained from the emperor Guillaume Ier of the Holy roman Empire (prince appointed by the archbishop Siegfried III as anti-king after the excommunication of Frederic II) the statute of imperial institution .

The success of the Rhenish league caused a major constitutional reform in the Holy roman Empire. But in 1256, Guillaume died in Frise. The construction of the union continued initially, however that the prince-voters did not find a compromise for the choice of the emperor, and that two princes were with equality. The union collapsed because of this divergence. But the concept of the union of the cities survived, and soon, of new leagues were formed everywhere, such as for example the Hanse, which before existed only as an association of merchants. The league of Mainz, Worms and Oppenheim was also reconstituted. But at the end of the Early middle ages, of more disturbed times started.

In 1310 was held the council of Mainz, and in 1356 the emperor Charles IV promulgated the Bulle of gold, which fixed the conditions for election at the head of the Saint Worsens:

• Three ecclesiastical voters (archbishops of Mainz, Trier and Cologne), and four laic voters (the king of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the the Rhine, the duke of Saxony and the margrave of Brandebourg) brought together with Frankfurt choose the sovereign, crowned with Aachen.
• the nomination sovereign escapes papacy, but its capacity is tiny room to nothing. The great principalities can preserve the total independence which they acquired and the Voters take care to choose candidates without prestige and authority. This policy involves the retreat of the germanism towards the East and compromises German cohesion.
• the Archevêque of Mainz becomes chancellor of empire.

Mainz at the end of the Middle Ages

Already time of the archbishop Matthias von Bucheck, conflicts burst between the archbishop himself, the city and the episcopal chapter. The bone of contention was, generally, the not-recognition of the privileges of the middle-class men by the chapter, which made pressure on the archbishop so that it reduces these rights. With died of the archbishop in 1328, the conflict was declared openly. The episcopal chapter elects like new archbishop the archbishop of Trier, Baudouin of Luxembourg, while the pope, who had the support of the middle-class, chooses like successor Heinrich von Virneburg (the nephew of the archbishop of of the same Cologne name). The schism which followed turned to confrontation pure and simple (known like the quarrel of the cure of Mainz ), confrontation which was worth at the city a prohibits ecclesiastical. Thereafter, Louis the Bavarian put the city at the round of applause of the empire. This sorrow forced Mayençais to repurchase their freedom by payment of a considerable fine, which left the ruined city. On top the epidemic of Black Death of 1348 occurred, which caused the decline of the city. This decline involved a fight for supremacy within the municipal council, to which took share of new parties as the Corporation S. These confrontations were spread out until late in the 15th century and delayed the urban development.

Loss of the civic rights

These urban confrontations involved also what one called the quarrel of the canonicat of Mainz , which brought finally in 1462 the end of civic freedoms for the city. Diether von Isenburg had been elected new archbishop in 1459. He quickly became the enemy of the pope (while refusing to join its holy war) and of the emperor (by its support with the hussites of Bohemia). The pope the déchut in 1461 and called Adolphe II of Nassau to the pulpit of Mainz, but the city and the middle-class men supported Diether. Adolphe II then made occupy the city and suspended the duties and privileges of the middle-class. Mainz was relegated from now on to the row of residence archiépiscopale and electoral, and managed by a deputy resident of the archbishop (“Vice-évêché”). The city lost any political importance thus.

With died of Adolphe II, in 1475, the chapter however again elected Diether von Isenburg as archbishop. The citizens of Mainz were going to recover their rights of the prince whom they had at one time acclaimed as archbishop, but not immediately: n the other hand of its election, Diether had had to give up solemnly in front of the episcopal chapter straight on the administration of the city; an oath which, following a rising of the middle-class (1476) held only one year. The Diether archbishop obtained the direction of the city again and was made build a residence, Martinsburg, first building of what was going to become the castle of the Prince-Voters. In 1486, the king Maximilien Ier definitively granted by letters patent the city to the archbishop.

University town

Diether von Isenburg built in 1477 the first university of Mainz, which was active until 1823. Already imagined by its predecessor Adophe II, such an institution had at the time being approved by the pope; this last in fact equipped this university with the same privileges as those with Cologne, Paris and Bologna. It was renamed “university Johannes Gutenberg” after the Second world war in 1946.

The invention of printing works

The invention of the Imprimerie in mobile matters took place (at least with regard to the western world) during the decades preceding the Reform, towards 1450, and is the work of Mayençais Johannes Gutenberg. This invention constitutes the first revolution of the media and it facilitated the religious Réforme, insofar as it made it possible not only more quickly to reproduce and diffuse the writing, but also on unimaginable scales before.

It is in Mainz (1452 - 1455) that Gutenberg printed its famous Bible with 42 lines. Johann Fust, the silent partner of Gutenberg, sold these printed works with Paris.

The Reform in Mainz

Premises

The loss of the civic rights contrasting with exorbitant ecclesiastical privileges, the relations between the middle-class men and the Church were degraded, and that the more so as the clerks neglected their religious duties more and more openly. The archbishop himself, as a Great Elector and Chancelier of Empire, dealt more with the policy of the Saint Worsens of religion. Thus, the archbishop Christian Ier von Buch (1165 - 1183) had come in all and for only twice in his parish. Other religious dignities also often profited from Prébende S and Sinécure S, of which they were to be occupied. They frequently left with Vicaire S the care to ensure their religious duties. Also the religious authorities never managed to keep the contact with the Laïc S.

The humanism and the knowledge of the biblical languages also made progress even in Central Europe. Thus, the biblist Johannes Reuchlin, who had opposed in 1513 the destruction by the Hebrew fire of books in requested by the Inquisition of Mainz, was condemned. He appealed to the Pope in 1518. The business trailed in length until the death of Reuchlin (in 1521) and, under the impulse of Ulrich von Hutten, gave place to many lampoons against the Dominicain S and their herald, Johannes Pfefferkorn.

It is on this compost that the Réforme occurred, with lampoons denouncing the sale of the Indulgence S by the Church. The trade of indulgences particularly flourishing in was évêché of Mainz. The reason was the nomination of Albert II of Brandebourg to the archbishop's palace. Albert, with whom it town of Mainz was indebted introduction of the ideas and architecture of the Renaissance (it had made to Matthias Grünewald his painter of court in 1526), and which was already archbishop of Magdeburg and Vidame of Halberstadt, preserved these titles after his nomination as an archbishop of Mainz. Approval by the Vatican of such an office plurality of functions cost a fortune ( first fruit ) the chapter of Mainz and Albert. It were let involve in the traffic of indulgence by the preacher Johann Tetzel. It is against this traffic that a monk originating in Eisleben, Martin Luther, rose initially. Its theses found an echo deep in Mainz and could be propagated quickly from the city which, precisely, had seen being born printing works. When in 1520, the pontifical nuncio Aleander went to Mainz to make there burn the writings of Luther, he escaped from little from lynching.

The Albert archbishop remained initially perplexed in front of the ideas of the reformers. Its tendencies humanistic S rather made it lean in their favor, so that it made come to the cathedral the preachers Wolfgang Fabricius Köpfel Capiton and Caspar Hedio, which held of the sermons humanistic and favorable to the Reform, and which was appreciated the faithful ones.

Finally, Albert took party against the Reform whose ideas undermined actually its authority. In 1523, Hedio, like Capito before him, had to leave Mainz. In spite of the persistence of Protestant partisans in its walls, the city and the parish remained catholic. The ecclesiastical chapter of Mainz thus elected in the person of Sebastian von Heusenstamm one holding of Catholicism like new prince-archbishop.

The War of the princes (1552)

Already time of Albert, the competitions between princes holding of Protestantism or Catholicism caused permanent conflict tensions. At the time of the “war of Smalkade” of 1546, the duke Maurice of Saxony, which with the king of France Henri II fought the emperor Charles Quint, was combined with the Margrave Albert Alcibiade de Brandebourg-Kulmbach. After Henri II had pushed back the incredible requirements of Maurice so that his defense is ensured, Albert Alcibiade only fought at the sides of France. He was by there in the need for marauder by all Germany with troops living of plunders. Oppenheim, Worms and Whorl as well as the monasteries of Würzburg and Bamberg were plundered. With the advertisement that Albert Alcibiade made walk towards Mainz, the archbishop and the chapter left the city. Even the residence of the prince-archbishop of Aschaffenburg was plundered and the burnt episcopal castle. It did not remain any more with the open Ville of Mainz but to capitulate to Albert Alcibiade. The margrave, become the “Plague of Germany”, destroyed part of the city and extorted moreover 15.000 books to him, that whose city was not close recovering. The emperor not being in a position to obviously more defend the city of the exactions, the archbishop Sebastian von Heusenstamm was solved to ask for religious peace. This one was concluded, under the name of religious Paix of Augsburg, the September 25th 1555.

With died of Sebastian von Heusenstamm (1555) for the second time the question of conscience arose, which was to decide denominational orientation of évêché. The chapter sliced with only one vote of majority in favor of the catholic Daniel Brendel de Hombourg. This last undertook the religious reconquest of the city and for this reason made come the Jésuite S to Mainz, which until the era of the Lights were to govern the university and to dominate all the intellectual and spiritual life. One was wary from now on Protestantisme, and it is only in 1802 that a first evangelic community (put aside, time with other, communities of garrisons) could be established in Mainz.

Mainz at the time of the Thirty Year old War

The Guerre Thirty Year old, which made rage since 1618, saved Mainz first of all, so that the architectural fever, which since the end of the previous century appears the town of a new glare, continued. To this time in particular the many princely palates go back from the members of the ecclesiastical chapter and the voter of Mainz. One also built the first fortifications, in particular on the Jakobsberg . The archbishop voter Georg Friedrich von Greiffenklau (1626 - 1629) undertook also the construction of the new castle, which continued during the hostilities.

But if the townsmen thought that the war would save the city until the end, the threat of the armies of king de Suède, who had unloaded in Germany in 1630, undeceived them. At the beginning of October 1631, the king of Sweden approached more and more by the valley the Rhine, incentive the archbishop and the chapter to be exiled in Cologne. The residence of the archbishop, Aschaffenburg, was then occupied by the Swedish troops. December 23rd, 1631, after a “honourable rendering”, the Swedish troops ravelled in front of the authorities of the city. The ransom that the middle-class men had to pour to avoid plundering and the fire ruined municipal finances. In these circumstances, Gustave Adolphe could take along to Sweden good number of works of art of the library of Mainz. The many retables painted by Grünewald for the cathedral of Mainz, and attested by various testimonys, as for them disappeared at the bottom from the Baltic when the Swedish ship which carried them as spoils of war ran.

As the Swedes did not have enough administrative staff, they left in station the municipal authorities in particular the council of the city, which did not have any more any capacity since the loss of the civil liberties. The advisers tried, with the support of the Swedish occupants, to demolish supervision of the archbishop's palace and its civils servant, in particular of the vice-archbishop. There was even again a mayor (Schultheiss) with the head of the city until the return, in 1636, of the archbishop and his advisers.

The Swedish occupation also allowed the re-establishment Mainz of the reformed faith (Luthéranisme); in fact Gustave Adolphe guarantees freedom of worship in Mayençais, so that the city remained catholic. With died of Gustave Adolphe in 1632, Mainz was finally plundered on order of the governor-general of king de Suède for Germany, the chancellor Axel Oxenstierna. From there the epidemic came from Peste.

The Bataille of Nördlingen (1634) marked the end of the Swedish invasion of Germany. The overcome troops were folded up towards the strengthened city of Mainz, where Gustave Adolphe had made besides build a star bastion on Right Bank of the Rhine like outpost. It is from there that the name comes from Gustavsburg , a district of the city (until 1945). The decimated troops and the defenders exhausted by the famine and the plague could not hold well a long time in front of the imperial troops. December 17th, 1635, the Swedish army started to evacuate Mainz, the last soldier leaving on January 9th, 1636. It left behind it a city depopulated, impoverished and destroyed by the war and the epidemics. To spend the winter, the townsmen did not have an other exit only to destroy several houses to get wood of heating.

The plague in Mainz

The Peste on several occasions struck the city during its history. There were epidemics in 1348, 1482, 1553, 1564 and 1592, but only that of 1348 made many victims. But the most serious episode of the plague was still that of 1666, which intervened at one time when the city was concerned the Thirty Year old war. The epidemic spread via Cologne according to trade route connecting Holland to the markets of Francfort-sur-le-Main and Mainz. The Acmé of the epidemic occurred in June 1666: although one does not know exactly the number of the victims, we know according to the newspaper of the Volusius prior, that “approximately 2.200 Mayençais died of the plague”. With the victims of the preceding war, that represents a depopulation of more than 20%.

Mainz after the Thirty Year old War

Towards the end of the War Thirty Year old, the November 19th 1647, the prince-bishop of Würzburg, Johann Philipp von Schönborn, called thereafter the “German Solomon” was elected archbishop by the ecclesiastical chapter. For this reason, Schönborn represented, with its counterpart of Cologne, the Ligue of the Rhine on August 14th, 1658, during the peace negotiations of the Traités of Westphalia with the Sweden and the France. The Schönborn family belonged to the aristocratic families more for Germany. The political and urban revival, as well as the reconciliation inspired by the reign of Johann Philipp as an archbishop and a prince-voter prolonged their effects until the French revolution. This prince, who was to reign until in 1673 was the principal craftsman of the prompt raising of the damage caused by the plague and the wars. It caused a revival which admittedly did not allow the return to the records of the Middle Ages. To solve the problem of the expenses of rebuilding, one restores the Octroi S which had always been an essential resource for the city. The grantings made it possible to tax the merchants who were to store in Mainz their goods before joining the fair of Frankfurt. Also Mainz knew it an economic revival, which attracted migrants of other areas impoverished or devastated by the war, like Italy. The epidemic of plague of 1666 caused all the same a fall of the population towards the end of the 17th century century.

Although the city was still under the authority of the archbishop, the civil laws of the middle-class men were reinforced during this period. The aldermen voted laws which one finds today in the civil code or the administrative law (especially in the code of town planning). The police force and the most important loads remained in theory the reserved domain of the princely authorities, just as the perception of the taxes (the “Treasury”), but these functions were largely exerted with the opinion of the middle-class men and depended on the episcopal court only in a formal way.

The construction of the fortifications, it, was also undertaken under the reign of Johann Philipp von Schönborn. Once built the Citadel of Mainz and the outposts strengthened (Cassel), which offered a first enclosure of ramparts, the prince-voter undertook to join together these works by a continuous wall. He created moreover a municipal militia to ensure the defense of the city. The construction of the fortifications was prolonged until the 18th century and cost a fortune. At the same time, several buildings of Style baroque were set up (the hotel of the captain of the militia, princely palates).

With died of Schönborn the February 12th 1673, three new archbishops reigned back-to-back until in 1679. The brevity of their reigns did not enable them to leave their print on the history of Mainz. Of 1679 with 1695 reigned Anselm Franz von Ingelheim, which supported the blooming of architecture and the current baroque. Its reign was obscured by the release of the Guerre of the league of Augsburg in 1689.

The War of the league of Augsburg

With died from the last Elector Palatine Charles II of Palatinat without heir, in 1685, Louis XIV drew pretext from the marriage of his/her brother Philippe of Orleans with the sister of the voter, to assert several territories of Palatinat. To affirm his claims, the king of France invades in 1688 the left bank of the Rhine from Alsace in Cologne and launched to the general Mélac the famous watchword “Burn Palatinat”. The general applied this order to the letter, transforming cities like Heidelberg, Worms and Spire in a heap of ruins. The troops of invasion were presented in front of Mainz in 1689. In spite of the recent fortifications all of the city, the Anselme archbishop preferred to capitulate, since it could oppose only one garrison of 800 militiamans to the 20.000 French soldiers. Thus Mainz fell for the first time to the hands from the French.

The armies of help of the Holy roman Empire ordered by the duke Charles V of Lorraine reached the city only on June 16th, 1689. Mainz was released after three months of seat and bombardment on September 8th, 1689. It was to still suffer from the devastation campaign of the cities of the Palatinat ordered by Louvois during the retirement of the French troops.

The age baroque

Lothar Franz von Schönborn, nephew of the voter Jean Philippe, took the succession of Anselme François von Ingelheim and reigned during more than thirty years until 1729. One of the largest manufacturers of the history of Mainz, it modified in-depth town planning and, in addition to the erection of a considerable number of buildings of style baroque, put a term at the housing shortage which accompanied the fast increase the population. Indeed, the residences were hitherto to be built will intra muros , which posed serious problems of planning.

One built in 1721 the Hospice Rochus , in order to intern the patients and the needy ones. These institutions of charity emanated from the welfare state instituted by the enlightened Despotisme typical of the Lights, the alarming prince of the wellbeing of its subjects per application of a “police force” (i.e., étymologiquement, a political : concept of paternal state).

Among the buildings the most representative baroques, let us quote: The “Favorité” (built into 1720/destroyed in 1793), the hotel Dalberg (1715), the Citadel of Mainz (1696), the enclosure of the castle Königstein (1710) and the castle of Eltz (1732).

Under the reign of the successors of Lothar Franz were built the commandery of the Order Teutonique (1730, today seat of the regional Parliament), the castle Stadion (1728), the private mansion of the archbishop Philipp Christoph d' Erthal (1735), the Nouvel arsenal (1738, today chancellery of state), the castle Bentzel (1741), the Palais Ostein (1749) and the castle Bassenheim (1756, today ministry for the Interior). Moreover, it is under the reigns of the last voters of the archbishop's palace that the castle of the voters, started before the Guerre Thirty Year old, was finished and took its current aspect. Of all these buildings, there remains today generally only the frontage, because of the damage of the Second world war.

The constructive fever broke out particularly for the construction of the cathedral, related to the reception of the Jésuites in Mainz. Thus rose the Noviciat Jesuit in 1729, the convent of the Clarisses (1725), the cloister of the Augustins (1737), the johannic commandery (1741), the cathedral itself, according to the plans of Balthasar Neumann (finished in 1745, destroyed in 1793), the church Saint-Pierre (1750) as well as the church Saint-Ignace (1763).

The architect and the most important project superintendent of this period are the director of construction and specialist in the fortifications Maximilian von Welsch.

Music and theater played also a big role at the age baroque. The aristocratic families supported the construction of theaters and concert halls, and Mainz had great need for musicians and actors. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which one counts with the traditional number of the musicians already S visited itself three times the city until 1790. The creation of the musical unit B. Schott and wire in 1770 and the establishment of the factor of musical instruments Franz Ambros Alexander , whose workshop (“Musik Alexander”) lives Mainz since six generations, were of the events of importance for the radiation of the city.

Lights

Aristocratic Mainz, impregnated by centuries of clericalism and privileges peerage-books, was touched by the current of ideas of the Lights only under the reign of the voter Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein. Its private adviser, the count Friedrich von Stadion counted in Mainz with the number of the most advanced spirits of the 18th century. He modernized political structures and economic old and sclerosed and fought the popular superstitions prévalentes since the tribulations of the Guerre Thirty Year old. The trade developed thanks to the modernization of the infrastructure and was vivified by trade fairs.

The ideas of the Lights accepted their final impulse under the reign of the prince-archbishop Emmerich Joseph von Breidbach-Bürresheim (1763 - 1774), which undertook, within the institutions in place, “to draw the men from their resigned minority”, insofar as it felt that it should be pressed on citizens lit to face the challenges of Modernity. That passed above all by the generalization of secondary education, condition of any enlightened company. In a spirit in conformity with the modern design of work, the voter removed moreover by decree 18 public holidaies on December 23rd, 1769, or made them coincide with one Sunday. Hitherto, on a religious calendar cash 50 working days affected by the festivals of the Rhine and the solemn festivals, one counted 150 more (!) public holidaies.

The election of Frederic-Charles Joseph d' Erthal in 1774 made fear initially that it would mark the end of the opening to the progress of the Lights. But the new archbishop brought on the contrary to the changes in progress the influence of the French philosophers as well as the will to fight for the tolerance, including nun. Thus its “law of judaïté” put a term at the medieval system of the ghettos. Moreover it enacted the instructions of hygiene and completed the Public assistance with stripped.

But these reforms could prevent only the “Ancien Mode”, the old principle of the electorates is condemned to disappear in the movements from modernity. All the attempts to reform the institutions in the spirit of the Lights were basically condemned to the failure, insofar as the ideas even of the Lights were opposed at these institutions.

Influence French revolution

The French revolution of 1789 found in the prince archbishop Frederic-Charles Joseph d' Erthal a decided adversary, which accommodated with open arms all noble French fleeing the working class unrest. But these Émigrés was quickly made hate population, so that the revolutionary movement started to even find partisans in Mainz. However, Mainz was initially the epicentre of the Contre-révolution in Europe. After France had declared the war with the archduke of Austria François II the April 20th 1792, the diet of the voters was assembled in July 1792 with the castle Favorite the of Mainz, to promise itself to demolish the French revolutionists and, if they would carry the hand on the royal family, to inflict to the French an exemplary punishment. But the king of France Louis XVI impatienta and tried to flee to join the emigrants of Mainz. The failure of this escape in Varenne involved the arrest and the inculpation of the king. Six days earlier, on August 4th, 1792, of Erthal had joined the coalition austro-Prussian with the great dissatisfaction with the middle-class men of Mainz. However, not only the attempt at invasion of France by the armies of the coalition failed on September 20th the Bataille of Valmy, but the revolutionary armies, passing to the counter-offensive, passed the Rhine: their primary goal was Mainz…

The Republic of Mainz

On September 29th and 30th 1792 the revolutionary armies ordered by the general Custine seized Spire (city). As the French could not hold this position well a long time, they were folded up four days later on Worms. In Mainz, it was panic: the voter, the bishops of the chapter, the aristocrats and their servants left the city precipitately. According to the estimates, between the quarter and one the third of the 25.000 inhabitants fled. The remainder of the population was however declared lends to defend the fortifications damaged meanwhile. It was thus 5.000 volunteers to defend the city, which represented however only one third of what it would have been necessary to cover the gigantic enclosures.

The French troops began the surrounding and the head office of Mainz on October 18th 1792. The noise ran in the city that approximately 13.000 besieging had given an opinion, which terrified the council of war chaired by the count Gymnich. It decided on October 20th to capitulate without fighting. October 21st the French entered the residential city of the largest princes voters of Germany, and a city which had the widest fortifications. This day made date in the later relations between France and the Holy roman Empire. 20.000 soldiers occupied the city, a manpower higher than the population. The occupants tried to convert the inhabitants with the benefits of the Revolution. They were however not the revolutionary ideas, but the daily problems posed by the supply of so considerable occupying forces, which obstructed the population. As well, much of middle-class man looked at the French, not like invaders, but like liberators. Moreover, the general Custine gave all kinds of instructions for the protection of the university and the buildings of the archi-episcopate.

Custine took itself its districts in the residence of the Archbishop, the castle of the prince-voter, where he proclaimed on October 23rd, 1792 the creation of the “ Société of the friends of Freedom and the Equality ” (the first Club of the Jacobins of Germany). This club was the first democratic party of Germany: twenty members federated around the Serment “To live free or die! ”. The club registered in its statutes the propagation of the Human rights in all the empire by a peaceful revolution. Thereafter, 492 members joined it, including 450 Mayençais. That represents a high proportion if it is considered that, of the 25.000 inhabitants of before the seat, there was no more whereas 7.000 German residents, and that only with adhesion the men of more than 18 years were allowed, and even later of more than 24 years.

As the occupying army of Custine stuck strictly to the application of the revolutionary principles, in particular in the application of the right to self-determination, it proposed with the population to choose if it wished, or not, the return to the “yoke” of the Ancien Mode. There was then by all the republic of Mainz an intense exchange of arguments between partisans and opponents of the princely state, but there was no strictly speaking gap between the opinions of the two camps, because for example some holding of the old system could now hope for a “constitutional principality”. The opponents of the republic recruited themselves mainly in the Corporation S. the duration of the occupation of the city gradually caused at Mayençais the carryforward then the rejection of the application of the revolutionary ideas. That was due also to the fact that as from December 1792, the Austrian armies approached each day a little more Mainz: the middle-class men took into account a possible regime change and sought, by their delaying tacticses and their opposition, to spare all the exit doors.

Towards the end of 1792, Custine modified its policy, and imposed elections whose poll was to be held in 1793. Only were allowed to vote all those which would before have lent oath in the name of the Sovereignty of the People, Freedom and the Equality. This requirement displeased to the inhabitants, and it was necessary, to fight the dissatisfaction with the middle-class men, to hold up the threat of the guns of the Citadel. Thus, the poll of February 24th, 1793, which should have been the day of glory of the Démocratie, was essentially a repression against the agitation of the townsmen, so that finally 8% of the citizens took part in the vote. The first elected mayor was Franz Konrad Macké. The vote elected also a deputy with the Convention of the Rhenish Republic , a Parliament founded by the French government to represent the occupied territories of Right Bank of the Rhine. After the vote, the middle-class was shared. To protect the municipality held mainly by the party Jacobin, the occupying forces condemned the leaders of the opposition to the exile in the Rhineland. Such measurements weakened adhesion with the republic. The new institutions, the Municipality for the city, and the national Convention of the Rhineland (first modern Parliament of Germany) for the area, were devoted to the task in a context of repression. March 17th 1793, a national Convention of Teutons free was constituted in deliberative assembly. She voted on March 18th a decree proclaiming the ''''' République of the German Rhineland '''''. This new republic, incompetent to only defend oneself, asserted the meeting with France. Though this request was accepted by Paris, she never arrived to Mainz, which had been taken again meanwhile by the imperial forces. The occupation had already put a crushing argument at the short republican experiment, because the capacity was now held, not by the elected authorities, but by the military governor.

The made share of its illegality and its abstract nature, this transitory “Republic of Mainz” remains the first example of Démocratie out of German ground.

The city in state of siege (1793)

See also: Head office of Mainz (1793)

Decline of the electorate of Mainz

The “release” of the city in 1793 did not certainly put a term at the contentions of Mainz with the revolutionary campaigns. The French Republicans did not have of cease which they take again control of this strategically important city. This one was now strong of a garrison of 19.000 Prussians, but the mode was practically similar to an occupation, the incidents and the complaints between townsmen and the soldiers going multiplying. To the truth, the inhabitants aspired to the return wellbeing of before 1792: but their wish of a return to the mode of princely city was not carried out; the archbishop of Erthal did not move any more that occasionally in Mainz and preferred from now on to control since Aschaffenburg.

Until 1796, the fortune of the weapons often oscillated between the Revolutionists and united so that Mayençais did not see any more very clearly which was truly the Master of the territories of left bank of the Rhine. More once French reached Mainz, and ravelled even in the city, until their adversaries return to occupy the place. However, at the end of 1797, it became clear that united did not have much any more of forces to oppose to the French. The revolutionary troops carried out by a young general of the name of Napoléone Bonaparte went from success in success.

The Imperial ones (the Prussians, indeed, had left the city since 1794) finally decided to take down left bank. One made gleam in Mayençais that their city would be saved, which the middle-class men and even the archbishop believed. October 17th, 1797, the Traité of Campo Formio put a term at the hostilities between French Autrichiens and Republicans. Thus, the promise of the authorities Vienneses was not worth anything any more: the Austrian troops evacuated the city in December and the 30 of the same month, “Mainz” became again French for the fourth time! Thus finished the thousand-year-old princely city . The territories of left bank of the Rhine were annexed to France, and instituted Mainz chief town of new the Département of the Mount-Thunder , with at its head the prefect André Jeanbon Saint Andre.

In 1802, the Consulat decided the creation of the college of Mainz, one of the seven colleges of first generation with the colleges of Bordeaux, Marseilles, Lyon, Moulins, Brussels and Douai. The French wanted to make of Mainz a forever French city; also they in this city brought their culture and their language, of which there remains still today of the traces in the Mainzer Dialekt . They restored their institutions (of which they had posed the bases in 1793) and their courts. It one of these republican courts which had to judge in 1803 certain Johann Bückler, is sung later by the Romantiques under the name of Schinderhannes .

The final loss of the role of princely city had as a consequence the departure of the last aristocrats, which made more and more of Mainz a middle-class city. The conspicuous consumption of the aristocrats, which had supported since always the trade, belonged to the past. It followed initially a misery and layoff, but the new institutions liberalized the system of production and of exchange by putting a term at the authority of the medieval corporations. If the merchants could benefit quickly from liberalism, the taxes and the constraints imposed by the successive blockades raised new difficulties to them, so that, in spite of its freedom, the city could not redeploy economically. To that is added that, throughout its function of place-strong, girdled wall Mainz could not extend on its suburbs. All that made that Mayençais, that the Republic never had inspired much, came from there to wish the return to the Old Mode.

In addition, the dissensions between the Church and the Republic had reached their paroxysm: the archbishop of Erthal did not have any more the authorization to preach in the parishes of the Département of the Mount-Thunder, the French prohibiting even with dignitaries of row the higher access to their territory. Moreover the Republicans regarded the traditional catholic worship as null and void. It is not that with grinds arguments that, for example, it was necessary to be opposed to the destruction of the cathedral of Mainz. The coup d'etat of Bonaparte the 18 brumaire year VIII improved the situation: to restore civil peace and to put a term at the War of the Vendée, new the First Consul signed with the Pope the Concordat of 1801. This pact made it possible Bonaparte to redistribute the nominations with the head of évêchés, including in the Rhineland. It divided the French territory into 10 Archevêché S and 50 évêché S. In this reorganization, Mainz was brought back to simple évêché gathering the old dioceses of Worms, Spire and Metz, and depend on the archbishop's palace of Malines.

The archbishop of Erthal at least tried to preserve what remained of its archbishop's palace by redrawing the limits of its diocese; in vain: at the winter 1801-1802 occurred on all the German territories of left bank of the Rhine what was occurred in France with the revolution: one proclaimed a civil Constitution of the clergy, and the churches were profaned.

Since 1802 sat at Ratisbon a extraordinary room convened by the emperor François II and the Diète of Empire, charged with compensating the private voters their goods by the abandonment for left bank with the Rhine. The successor of Erthals, Karl Theodor von Dalberg, assisted on February 25th, 1803 with the “Recès of empire”, devoting the final dissolution of the electorate and the archbishop's palace of Mainz, which went back to 782, with all his possessions and all his titles. Under the pressure of Napoleon, the Saint Empire Romain Germanique itself was dissolves in 1806.

Mainz under the First Empire

After the Coup d'etat of the 18 brumaire, Bonaparte had been essential like the most influential man of the young republic, to which Mainz itself was attached since. Not only it ordered the rebuilding of the forts (until Cassel on Right Bank of the Rhine), but also the erection of a dam along the river. It inspected the city on several occasions. It authoritatively upset the urban architecture, ordering in particular which one shaves, inside the Château of the Prince-Voters, the dongeon of the Martinsburg of Diether von Isenburg, which more than ever was drawn up like an anachronism in the middle of the bodies of building. It made bore several streets towards the Prunkboulevard , such as the Grosse Bleiche , one of the three clearings (“Bleichen”) which one had traced as of the Middle Ages to plaster the hovels inside the fortifications of then. Napoleon made prolong these streets to the banks of the Rhine, which rang the knell, if one can say, of the church St Gangolph (of which the cathèdre is today in the cathedral of Mainz).

Bonaparte, crowned emperor of the French in 1804 under the name of Napoleon, did not want only to make this city a fortified town, but a window of its empire. It was necessary for that to alter in-depth the left districts ruins some since the bombardment of 1793, which was not done day at the following day. Culturally, the city did not have large any more - thing to be seen with the old residence of the prince-archbishops. This loss of influence resulted in a provincialism growing, which was prolonged during all the XIXe century. Thus, the Perte of the University was irrevocable, and the local press as well as the musical life were from now on with low.

French occupation

The French occupation was translated above all by the permanent presence of a garrison from 10.000 to 12.000 soldiers, quantifies that it is necessary to pay to the 20.000 inhabitants then. All the aspects of the life were subordinated to the needs for the army.

The countryside of Germany (1813-1814)

The rising of Leipzig in October 1813 marked the end of the authority of Napoleon in Germany. Overcome, the French troops were folded up in Mainz on the Rhine, where they could rest for the continuation of the operations. But for the population, it was a catastrophe because the army brought with it an epidemic of Typhus. The epidemic made until spring 1814 approximately 17.000 victims among the soldiers and 2.400 in the population (either nearly 10% of the inhabitants) of which the prefect André Jeanbon Saint Andre. Mainz was again encircled and besieged by the armies of the coalition Russo-Prussian. In spite of the food shortage, the French held the city still almost six months to the signature of the Traité of Paris (1814): they evacuated then Mainz (May 4th 1814): it was the 16 years end of uninterrupted French presence in the Rhineland. One still sees of them the traces in the cemeteries, the speech and the local folklore. But especially, the aristocratic city was nothing any more but one middle-class big city, the loss of the function of electoral seat being hardly compensated by the administrative office that the French had intended to allot to Mainz. The city was relegated to the row of regional metropolis, a forfeiture of which it was raised only at the conclusion of the Second world war, moreover once again on the initiative of the French, whose sector of occupation included/understood the Rhineland.

Place strong of the Germanic Confederation

The end of the Napoleonean wars and the French presence in Germany marked the beginning of the German state by no means. It was first of all a rather loose political structure, the Germanic Confédération which was installation. Mainz was derechef occupied (this time by German troops). This occupation was hardly less overpowering that the preceding ones, because one suspected the townsmen of having collaborated with the French. Of 1814 with 1816 Mainz remained temporarily managed by an emanation of late the Département of the Mount-Thunder, the general government of the average Rhine including/understanding the Rhine and the Saar. As the Prussian and Austrian authorities could not get along on a division of the territories of left bank of the Rhine, they were solved to control concert the country from thestrong one of Mainz. Thus, the political statute of the Rhineland remained ambiguous during long years.

Town of Hesse

Prussia, Austria and the Grand-duché of Hesse signed on June 30th, 1816 a treaty aiming at even drawing the borders of the Grand Duchy. One allotted in particular in this new state the town of Mainz, and also his suburbs of Right Bank like Cassel and Kostheim. A commission hessoise joined together in Mainz, which had been autoproclamée since 1818 “regional government”, had posed in advance the bases of this treaty. It is a nephew of the author of aphorisms Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, the baron Ludwig von Lichtenberg, which was the first president of this assembly.

The daily newspaper in Mainz was to be regulated for still a century by the garrison life. The civil authorities were subordinated to the military authorities by a “military payment” what had as a consequence that the police force was mainly ensured by the army. Prussia and Austria reinforced this situation: the competition of these two powers resulted in a line of demarcation between two armies and two police forces which divided Mainz territorialement.

The parliamentary life took again in 1820: the Large-Duke granted a constitution, which established a Parliament with two rooms elected with the Suffrage censitaire. This Parliament voted him even in 1820 a constitutional law which, with multiple amendments, lasted until in 1918.

The period hessoise saw the city changing face: the damaged or unhealthy houses were struck of alignment, the Prussian headquarters was drawn up with the site of the transept of the Notre-Dame church destroyed in 1793 and the official architect Georg Moller capped the cathedral of his characteristic iron cupola (removed thereafter) and, on behalf of the city, built the new theater on the Gutenberg place. As from the years 1840, to accompany the passion for cruisings on the Rhine on board the new steamers, the prestigious hotels of the Rheinstrasse opened their doors, modifying the silhouette of the city. To release the sight on the cathedral from the Rhine, one cut down in 1847 the old “door with fish” ( Fischtor ) of Gothic style.

The social question impregnated also little by little urban environment as from the years 1830. Bad occasional harvests and the food shortages increased the tension between the public authorities and the population, without however degenerating into an open conflict (it should be said that the city sheltered 8000 soldiers permanently!).

Risings of 1848

The revolution of 1848 also touched Mainz: the townsmen, pushed by the democratic ideals, required authorities hessoises liberal institutions like the Freedom of the press, the obligation for the soldiers to lend oath on the Constitution, the Freedom of worship as well as the creation of an elected Parliament. The middle-class men moreover had required little before the re-establishment of the laws of police force which had been agreed. Heinrich von Gagern, appointed minister of state, approved these requests on March 6th, 1848.

The after-revolution

The repression of the Prussian authorities which followed reinforced the feelings anti-Prussians. The revolution had also given the social question to the day order. The revolution was followed from one period of calm policy and an economic depression. The situation is restored only as from 1853 with the installation of the first modern industries and the arrival of the Railroad. As of 1860 there were already 164 factories. With the recovery, the political life and associative began again - in spite of the temporary stop of work of urban extension after the explosion of the Prussian ammunition dump in 1857.

The statute of city-strong of the Confederation ended in 1866. The competition between Prussians and Austrians had finally led to a war. Bavaria required of the two powers which the territories which they occupied, including/understanding inter alia Mainz, are issued neutral. One renonça with the military occupation, from the troops of Hesse and Wurtemberg came to ensure the application of the treaty. But the city became for Prussia a coveted treasure: July 20th, 1866 the military occupation was issued. In the war which opposed it to Prussia, Austria had soon to capitulate: the armistice was signed on July 26th 1866, and the peace treaty was ratified the next on August 23rd. It regulated the future status of the citadel of Mainz but was ratified only by Austria. The persistent claims of France on Mainz, they, were quite simply ignored by the kingdom of Prussia. The Prussians named the prince of the Schleswig-Holstein, which had just disavowed on August 4th, 1866 its oath with the Germanic Confédération, military governor of Mainz. The time of “place-strong of Mainz” was completed.

The Carnival of Mainz

The Carnival of Mainz ( Meenzer Fassenacht in dialect, or Mainzer Fastnacht in German) evolved to its current form as from 1837. The first association for the promotion of these festivities, the Mainzer-Carneval-Verein (MCV) was constituted in 1838, and remains until today the most important association of this kind. It is in particular organizing floral procession of Mainz.

See also: Carnival of Mainz

Growth of the agglomeration

The statute of strengthened city had always prevented the expansion the urban development and by there, constrained the increase in the population compared to the close cities, such as for example Frankfurt or Wiesbaden. The ramparts circumscribed only one surface limited, which with the wire of the centuries had been finally entirely covered with constructions, such as for example the district of the three Bleichen . One built no building apart from the ramparts, because they would have been used as shelters with possible besieging. Also the city could it develop only on one limited influence. This expansion was done around initially disconnected sites, giving to urban fabric the aspect of a patchwork with its sinuous, recent or old streets, and its unhealthy small islands. In 1886, the real estate speculation involved a reconquest of these districts. The city however was always strengthened, and the town-plannings were to conform to the lines of defense. The urban development at that time is particularly indebted with the town planner Edouard Kreyssig. One built a new bridge above the Rhine. One installed gas a works, a powerplant, river customs; one built the large market (at that time largest of Germany) and the evangelic church Christuskirche , that Kreyssig had conceived as a “against-cathedral” (its cupola rises with one meter more than that of the cathedral). The dwelling houses were rehabilitated like those of the „Gartenfeld “, which covered residences. The banks of the Rhine were widened for this purpose. In spite of that, the city increased more slowly than its neighbors until the XXe century. For example, by 1816 to 1864, Wiesbaden increased by 1208%, Mainz only of 67%. The fortifications made also obstacle with the reception of heavy industry, consuming space. The job market in Mainz was dominated by the activity of leather and the textile, joinery, the agro-alimentary one as well as the mechanical engineering like the work of metals. The river port was vital for these activities.

The Guerre free-Prussian of 1870-1871 was followed annexation of the Alsace-Lorraine and thus of Metz, promoted from now on city-fortress against France. Also the fortifications of Mainz were disarmed at the end of the century and their maintenance, neglected.

Mainz at the XXe century

The 20th century brought a dash renewed to the town of Mainz, in addition to its new statute of agglomeration. The year 1900 was celebrated like that of jubilée of Gutenberg, which one had arbitrarily estimated the year of birth at 1400. The side Canal of the Rhine, which one had begun the digging at the previous century, was completed. On order of the emperor Guillaume II, the fortifications were gradually dismantled as from 1900. The population of the city, which absorbed in its extension the suburbs of Mombach, Cassel and Kostheim, increased quickly. The Conurbation with Cassel in 1908 devoted the statute of agglomeration.

In Mainz also, the First World War marked the end of the Belle time , started in 1871. The problems of dearness and provisioning worsened continuously with the four year old wire of the conflict, so that in 1918 were formed mass demonstrations against the hunger. For the first time, bombs were released on Mainz on May 9th 1918, making inter alia victims the young person Meta Cahn, to whom Anna Seghers dedicated a work later.

With the advertisement of the unconditional surrender of German Reich the November 11th, 1918, burst of the street battles and plunderings of stores. The prisons were opened, however that “Soviets of workmen” and soldiers constituted themselves spontaneously. They élirent however for the majority only moderated chiefs, who faced the events prudently. The republic was proclaimed as of the evening of November 10th on the place of the town hall, while in Darmstadt the large-duke of Hesse had been deposited the day before.

Occupation of the Rhineland after 1918

The conditions of the armistice stipulated that the German army would demilitarize left bank of the Rhine and would respect a neutral zone out of Right Bank of a width of 10 km. The last German soldier evacuated Mainz the morning of December 8th, 1918. At midday this same day, the French Army (65e division of infantry under Victor Goybet) invested the city for the fifth time of its history. On order of the marshal Foch one maintained in place the German laws and payments. On the other hand, all new law was to be subjected to the military authorities of the occupying forces.

The French stationed 12.000 men in the only town of Mainz, including more than 5.400 in the barracks bordering on Amöneburg, Kastel, Kostheim, Gonsenheim and Weisenau. That caused a housing shortage, because the troops of occupation invested all the largest buildings. There was not to finish more any house which did not lodge one or more soldiers. As they had done in 1799, the French brought downtown their language and their culture to reconcile the population. French courses were instituted, in order to remove the barrier of the language.

The independent Rhineland

This new occupation of the the Rhineland ressuscita the project to group the territories of left bank in a self government within Germany. As the German Parliament opposed it, one evoked the creation of an independent state, the the Rhineland . These projects were subjected to the French command occupying the country. June 1st, 1919 a “autonomous République of the Rhineland” of the federation of the German Empire was proclaimed by posters in any Mainz. An immediate general strike put a term at this short episode of the Rhenish history and mayençaise. But the idea made its way: a very similar proclamation still took place with Aachen in 1923, which had echoes in Mainz. The separatists thus formed the provincial government which the French required, but which was recognized neither by the German government, neither by the population, nor by the other allied powers, which definitively sanctioned the failure of the idea of a “Rhenish République”.

Consequences of the Treated of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles laid out that the occupied territories would be placed under the authority of a civil government, which would sit at Coblentz as “an interallied High ranking authority of the Rhineland”. The clauses laid down also the final dismantling of the fortifications, which was concluded under the occupation, even if there remains about it some vestiges in the downtown area, like the Citadel. The influences released by the demolitions were quickly reconverted, and as of the middle of the XXe century several work of embellishment was undertaken there. January 11th 1923, the French and Belgian troops occupied the Rhineland under the war reparations. The call of the German government with the passive resistance was followed amongst other things by the industrialist Fritz Thyssen, who had to answer about it in front of a military tribunal, which caused agitation in the city.

Inflation and misery regulated the daily newspaper of the immediate post-war period in Mainz. It is only with the passage to the Rentenmark at the end of 1923 and the resignation of Alliés with respect to the vanity of “repairs” that the economic situation started to improve.

The “ Mad years ” passed unperceived. From the cultural point of view, the Staatsbibliothek knew flourishing years under the direction of Aloys Ruppel. It acquired of one of the famous bibles of Gutenberg. Today the library has two specimens of this invaluable incunable of which there remains only 48 specimens by the world. The municipal theater reopened, even if creations of the repertory expressionist were there never with the program. The cinemas made their appearance in Mainz. The major repairss of the cathedral, started before the war, ended in 1928. The lowering of the Ground water had made them essential.

The year 1930 marked the end of the foreign occupation, preceded by the absorption of new suburbs: January 1st 1930 the districts of Ginsheim-Gustavsburg and Bischofsheim (Right Bank), of Bretzenheim and Weisenau (left bank) were integrated into the agglomeration. These new suburbs offered, in addition to interesting platforms of exchange, like the port of Gustavsburg on the Hand, much of industries and especially of the influences for the construction of housing in a city in full growth. The city doubled size thus.

Remilitarization and Nazism

Following the many interventions of Gustav Stresemann, Foreign Minister of the Weimar Republic, the occupation of the Rhineland ended the June 30th 1930, a personal success for this politician with whom it town of Mainz set up a monument.

The Economic crisis of 1929 brutally stopped the pause returned as from 1923 and allowed the Nazi party, NSDAP, to also obtain the majority in the Rhineland (i.e. in an officially foreign country in Germany). Unemployment rate climbing in Mainz up to 12,8% in 1932, the cost of the emergency social measures as of the war reparations ruined finances of the young republic in little time. This misery supported the extremism, which denounced the “apparatchiks” and “the international Jewish one of finance”. One could distinguish the premises of this movement between the years of hyperinflation and 1923, because there was already in Mainz a group of extreme right-hand side, which was, however, quickly prohibited. A local cell of the NSDAP had been founded in 1925, which according to certain sources counted 50 members in 1926. For obscure reasons, it was dissolved between 1927 and 1928. Though the first demonstration was held in 1928, the party found if little echo in Mainz which the NSDAP did not manage to obtain a seat with the municipal elections of 1929. Until the coup d'etat, and two visit of Hitler, the party remained apart from the local government, but it obtained many voices with the legislative elections, and with regional from 1932, it obtained even 26.186 from them. The same year, Dr. Werner Best, an eminent lawyer and member of the S, obtained the direction of the party in Mainz. This influential man endeavoured to make accept the ideology Nazi in Mayençais restive.

The January 30th 1933, day of the seizure of power by Hitler, there were two processions through the city: initially 3.000 men, mobilized by the Communist party to express against the coup d'etat, then later less than 700 militants Nazis for a torchlight procession. After the legislative elections of March 5th, 1933 the setting to the step began, and related to obviously also Mainz. The persecution of the Jews, whose community counted 3.000 members, began in April. Since second half of the XIXe century, this community had been able to open out and had established two Synagog S, of which one, sign of a progressive recognition, had not been built in the Jewish district of Emmerans , but in full downtown area, on the Hindenburgstrasse . These synagogs were burnt at the time of the Nuit of crystal , and one made pay to the Jews clearing ruins, but the library could be saved. A Parchment of the Torah which one had hidden with the seminar of Mainz, was discovered in 2003 and given to the Jewish community of Weisenau.

The prohibition of the political parties, the trade unions and the independent press completed the setting with the step. But the Nazis did not manage to federate the two large churches of the city: if the Glaubengemeinschaft Deutsche Christen Nazi counted several parishes in Mainz, the Protestant pastors of the Christuskirche were the founding members of the league of the German pastors. The catholic bishops, Ludwig Maria Hugo and Albert Stohr, who under national-socialisme sat at Mainz, refused with any collaboration with the mode.

The suburb of Gonsenheim was absorbed in 1938, and in October of the same Mainz year obtained the autonomous statute of city ( Kreisfreie Stadt ).

Mainz and the second world war

The Second world war, started on September 1st, 1939, deteriorated initially the living conditions mayençaises only to the margin. The population knew a long time the war only by the Rationnement and the Couvre-feu X. In order to make them support, the stage performances and the concerts were maintained. The first bombs fell down on the city since 1940, and continued the following year, but they struck only the suburbs and the district of the station.

August 12th, 1942 opened a cycle of more severe aggressions, with the dropping by the British bombers of 203 T strategic bombs and 134 T of incendiary bombs on the downtown area. This bombardment destroyed in two days, in addition to the district Saint-Quentin and the collegial old woman Saint-Etienne, 781 houses, 5 churches, 4 schools, a private clinic and 23 public edifices, and made 161 victims.

The repression of the administration Nazi also fell down on the population. Searchings, interrogations and denunciations discouraged the opposition. As in other cities, this climate of terror however caused groups of resistance, whose almost all members were stopped and carried out after the Attentat of July 20th, 1944. Almost all the Jews which had not emigrated were off-set, and in 1945 one prepared even the “suppression” of the clergy.

It is only in January 1945 that the population convainquit that the war touched at its end. Ditches anti-tank device were dug around the city, then in January and February there were massive bombardments.

February 27th, 1945

The worst remained to be come: February 27th, 1945, the RAF released in three successive waves 514.000 lighting incendiary bombs, 42 bombs, 235 strategic bombs and 484 bombs of the type “Blockbuster”. The attack lasted in all and for a whole fifteen minutes (of 16:30 to 16:45) and changed the city into a gigantic torch. It made approximately 1200 dead, of which all monks of the convent of the capuchins. February 27th is since the day of the memory of the civilian victims of the war. In March 1945 the American troops reached the suburbs. While the order to evacuate the Rhineland had been given, Gestapo, which still hoped to treat with the enemy, wanted to allow the bishop Albert Stohr and his entourage to flee, but a warning statement of last minute prevented it.

The Americans seized the suburb of Hechtsheim on March 21st, and the following day the war was finished for Mainz. Of the 154.000 inhabitants of 1939, it did not remain any more that 76.000. 61% of the habitat were destroyed, and even 80% in the downtown area. On the whole, 2.800 people had lost the life in the bombardments. But the greatest number had been killed on the battle field, or returned to Mainz only in the years which followed. The Jewish community had definitively disappeared: from 3.000 members at the beginning of the Nazism, it had passed in 1945 to 59 survivors.

Post-war period

The Conference of Yalta, on February 10th, 1945, assigned in France a zone of occupation, contours initially vague, but which would include Mainz. This decision was happy for the city, which was thus metropolis of a large territory, part which it could not have played in a zone of American occupation much more vast.

But initially, the occupation by IIIe armed American forced the population to be concerned with daily newspaper. The city at this point was destroyed that all doubted their future. The golden age of the city was definitively finished.

The French forces were established in Mainz on July 9th, for the sixth time since 1644. The soldiers registered on the imperial door: “Here Mainz”. July 25th, a discussion at the top fixed the Rhine (only until height of Kaub) like border between the French and American zones of occupation. The suburbs of Right Bank were thus separated from Mainz and the suburbs in the north of the junction of the Main attached to Wiesbaden. The suburbs in the south of the Hand became again independent, as before 1930, which made lose in Mainz more half of its surface. All the later attempts at fastening failed, so that when the federal constitution created Lander of the Rhineland-Palatinat and Hesse, separation was final.

The inhabitants began the year 1945 by clearing 1,5 million m$\{\}\; ^3$ of rubble, work for which one would have needed an enormous number of workmen. Misery and the famine were the biggest problems of this time. To that ceaseless talks with the occupying power were added, to limit the destruction and repression.

Again university town

That did not prevent the mayor Emil Kraus (1893 - 1972) from announcing the creation of a university the day of the New Year's Eve 1945. This advertisement found its motivation in the decision taken by the French authorities in August 1945, to create an university in their sector of occupation. Mainz , “Mainz” of the French, equipped by them with considerable advantages, received finally precedence of Spire and Trier. For the buildings, one reconverts the hardly damaged buildings of the barracks built in 1938 into the surroundings of the Central Cemetery. February 27th, 1946, one year day for day after the disaster, Raymond Schmittlein inaugurated the university, stating it “in capacity to take again his mission”. The “capacity” was in fact granted by occupying forces which, in 1798, had dissolves the old university Diether von Isenburg. The new university took the name of Johannes Gutenberg.

The creation of the university was criticized on the occasion, insofar as it absorbed financial means at one time when the hunger tortured the inhabitants and where misery was general. This misery prevailed until the end of the years 1940 despite everything the attempts at assistance. But from 1947 the living conditions were restored. In 1948,180 000 catholics celebrated the jubilée papal one.

Customs controls between the various zones of occupation were raised in August 1948: the German federal state started to be formed.

Regional capital

Mainz was to hold a particular role within the new federal state, and that still on the initiative of France which, on August 30th, 1946, promoted the “capital” city of the Rhineland Palatinat. At the time, the townsmen did not pay attention to this statute and were not pleased any at all. The attribution of the name of capital was related to the obligation to release a certain number of apartments what, in a mainly destroyed city, was simply not possible.

This is why the regional government is established initially with Coblentz, at one time capital of the Prussia Rhénane. Moreover the political life of the province only became animated very gradually. The intercommunality was set up only one year and half after the end of the hostilities. The reorganization of the political system on the scale of the area took even more time, because much still doubted long years of becoming “horned state” ( Retortenlandes ), as one called the Rhineland.

However thanks to the attribution of the statute of capital, Mainz became again finally in 1950 the vital organs of the average Rhine which it was at the conclusion of the Congrès of Vienna. Coblentz, deprived of its function of regional capital, n the other hand became the seat of all the regional political authorities like the interregional court and the regional management of finances, which had nothing any more in Mainz but branches.

Mainz within the Federal republic

One can speak about one return to the growth only starting from the constitution of the occupied territories as a federal republic. The repatriation of industries like the glassmakings Schott, reducing Iéna, brought back employment and contributed to the budget of the agglomeration. At the end of the years 1950,70 industries had been established, creating 12.000 jobs. One cannot say in so far as Mainz benefitted from the German economic miracle, because the provisional provisions, debates of 1955 on the organization of the Land, and the maintenance of the university paralyzed the initiatives. Even the rebuilding of the center town was deferred a long time.

These controversies, as well as others, in particular around the rebuilding and town planning made that at the end of the years 1950, and even the years 1960, Mainz still the mark of the war damagees carried. The serious and justified companies of rebuilding transfer the day only in 1959-60, but it should be said that one approached the year of the 2000 years jubilee of the city, fixed to 1962. There were still quarrels on the dating of the origins of the city, because the foundation traditionally fixed in -38 did not rest on any historical source. Other old Roman colonies, like Cologne and Trier complained (while being based indeed on the authority recognized of Old) about this claim. The 2000 years jubilee of Mainz was however celebrated in 1962 with force rejoicings and of many decorations.

The Jubilee was accompanied, on June 21st, 1962, of a transfer by the Land of 62 ha located in skirt of forest of Ober-Olm. The suburb of Lerchenberg occurred there and soon the second channel of television (ZDF) is established there: in spite of the agreements of establishment of 1961, ZDF had hitherto at its disposal only of the provisional buildings with Wiesbaden and Frankfurt. The extension until Lerchenberg conferred on the city a stretched geography: Lerchenberg was indeed more far from the downtown area that the town of Marienborn. Even the common neighbors of Finthen and Drais were still independent. This irrefutable fact, among others, required new fusions of communes which ended in 1969, with the absorption of the towns of Hechtsheim, Ebersheim and Laubenheim. It is thus from 1962 that Mainz could finally start to support the comparison in terms of economic growth with the other towns of Germany. The ZDF could transmit its first emission on April 1st, 1963; almost a year later, the city still made the acquisition of 100 ha contiguous to the buildings and became thus the “city-television” which it is remained since.

Jockel Fuchs, elected on April 8th, 1965 at the post of mayor of the agglomeration, continued the effort of rebuilding of its predecessor Franz Stein: it made various proposals so that a Hilton hotel settles in Mainz and made come the computer firm IBM in 1965 - 66, this last success leading to the creation of 3.000 jobs, the arrival of new inhabitants and a rise of the incomes of the municipality. Positive migratory balance was accompanied again by an extension of built surfaces. One can see still today, not only in the suburbs, but even in the old center, the buildings of residences, with very criticized architecture, built in the years 1960. The constitution in agglomeration succeeds finally on June 8th, 1969 thanks to the regional reform voted by the regional government of majority CDU and directed by Helmut Kohl. If the elected officials of the urban community of the city regarded this reform as a right compensation of the loss of the cantons of Right Bank of the Rhine, the inhabitants and the elected officials of the communes joined together in Mainz were not delighted especially by the new situation. In consequence of the reunification of the communes, the surface of Large Mainz passed to 9564 ha and determined the influences on which the agglomeration continues to extend today.

As from 1962, the renovated image of the city was expressed through new administrative buildings. Two years only before the reunification of the communes, the majority of the municipal council decided to build a new town hall at the edge of the Rhine. There already had been long debates in the years 1930 around the site and of the architecture of a new building, because the city, managed by representatives of the archbishop since 1462, had never had town hall. The municipal councils sat since centuries in various buildings. When the debates ignited derechef at the end of the Fifties, one successively planned to reconvert for this purpose the old powder deposit, the castle of the Voter, and the large surface Am Brand , close which was drawn up finally the current town hall, on a project of the Danish architect Arne Jacobsen. The concept aims at inserting the building between the shopping mall Am Brand and the new market “the Gold of the Rhine” ( Rheingoldhalle ) rebuilt on the ruins of the old market hall. Once chosen the site of the town hall, the polemic began again on architecture and the labor costs, but the building was inaugurated despite everything on December 31st, 1973. The construction of the administrative building and town hall other, which changed the aspect of the city quickly, was also possible insofar as the elected officials of the agglomeration practiced the model mayençais , which means basically that they got along, across political alternations, to continue committed work. Naturally, these changes were not without generating some monstrosities, which were shown finger as well by the movement according to 68 as by the Greens in the Nineties. The come to power of the ecologists generally brought a greater transparency in the choices.

Since end of the year 70, the city received the visit of many Heads of State: in 1978 that of the Queen of England Elizabeth II, in 1980 that of the pope Jean-Paul II, in 1989 that of the President of the United States George Bush, in 2000 of the President of the Republic French Jacques Chirac and in 2001 of the Large-duke of Luxembourg Henri. Lastly, on February 23rd, 2005 George W. Bush, like her father before him, came to Mainz.

The year 2000 was celebrated like the Gutenberg year. The famous child of Mainz was chosen by the American magazine '' TIME '' like the man of the millenium.

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