The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz () is a

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and forms part of the Rhine-Main-Universities (RMU) along with

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

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

Faculties

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

Campus

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

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

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

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

. On campus next to the university is the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, the Institute of Molecular Biology, the electron accelerator MAMI, the research reactor TRIGA, the

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

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

Academic profile

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

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

and nutrition science. One can nonetheless study the theology, history of books, athletics, music, visual arts, theatre, and film. Today the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz has approximately 36,000 students () and consists of over 150 institutions and clinics. The university offers international programs, such as the award-winning choir EuropaChorAkademie, founded by Joshard Daus in 1997, in collaboration with the

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

. One of the instruments carried by the

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

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

Rankings

As per the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

s. The university also achieved the first place in

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

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

By subject

Notable people

Old University

* Johann Joachim Becher, physician, professor of medicine 1663–1664 * Johann Friedrich von Pfeiffer, economist, professor of cameral science 1784–1787 *

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

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

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

, professor of anatomy and physiology 1784–1797 *

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

, naturalist and world traveller, university librarian 1788–1793

Professors (post 1946)

* Karl-Otto Apel (philosophy) * Kai Arzheimer (political science) * Thomas Bierschenk (ethnology and sociology) * Herbert Braun (theology) * Hauke Brunkhorst (education) * Micha Brumlik (education) * Paul J. Crutzen (chemistry, Nobel Prize 1995) * Fritz Strassmann (physics) * Jürgen Falter (political science) * Hans Galinsky (American studies) * Gerhard Grohs (African studies) (Sociology) (1975–1994) * Leopold Horner (chemistry) * Alfred Kröner (geology) * Karl Cardinal Lehmann (theology) * Carola Lentz (social anthropologist) *

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

(philosophy) *

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

(physics) * Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (communication studies) * W. Pannenberg (theology) * Rolf Peffekoven (economics) * Klaus Rose (economics) * Dorothee Sölle (theology) * Beatrice Weder di Mauro (economics) * Isabel Schnabel (economics) * Fritz Straßmann (nuclear chemistry, discovered

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

with

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

) *

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

(political science, former adviser of German chancellor

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

) *

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

(theoretical chemistry) * Uğur Şahin (medicine) * Özlem Türeci (medicine) * Klaus Wälde (economics)

Alumni

Alumni of the old University include theologian Friedrich Spee as well as Austrian diplomat

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

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

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

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

and president of the Munich Conference on Security Policy); Kristina Schröder, Federal Minister of Family and Social Affairs; Franz Josef Jung ( CDU, Former Federal Minister of Labor and Social Affairs and former Federal Minister of Defence); Jens Beutel, Oberbürgermeister (mayor) of Mainz; particle physicist Vera Lüth; nuclear and particle physicist Johanna Stachel; sculptor Karlheinz Oswald; sports journalist Béla Réthy; political journalist Peter Scholl-Latour; Dieter Stolte, former director-general of

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

; soprano Elisabeth Scholl; a founder of American

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

cinema Jonas Mekas; his brother Adolfas Mekas, film director, writer and educator; mural artist Rainer Maria Latzke; the German climatologist Wolfgang Seiler; Abbas Zaryab, notable Iranian scholar and historian; Indonesian Toraja Church pastor and politician, Ishak Pamumbu Lambe; Srinivas Kishanrao Saidapur, an Indian reproductive biologist; American educator Biddy Martin; Stanisław Potrzebowski, one of leaders of the ridnovir movement in Poland; German opera singer Christine Esterházy; and Ruth Katharina Martha Pfau, nun, physician and writer who devoted more than 50 years of her life to fighting leprosy in Pakistan.

References

External links

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