The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität 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 sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

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 most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kno ...

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer

Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (; – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and craftsman who introduced letterpress printing to Europe with his movable-type printing press. Though not the first of its kind, earlier designs ...

since 1946. With approximately 32,000 students (2018) in about 100 schools and clinics, it is among the largest universities in Germany. Starting on 1 January 2005 the university was reorganized into 11 faculties of study. The university is a member of the

German U15 German U15 e.V. is an association of fifteen major research-intensive and leading medical universities in Germany with a full disciplinary spectrum, excluding any defining engineering sciences. The governing body is the University of Mainz, repres ...

, a coalition of fifteen major research-intensive and leading medical universities in Germany. The Johannes Gutenberg University is considered one of the most prestigious universities in Germany. The university is part of 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 clust ...

. The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a 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 wealt ...

and the

Technische Universität Darmstadt The Technische Universität Darmstadt (official English name Technical University of Darmstadt, sometimes also referred to as Darmstadt University of Technology), commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a research university in the city of Darmstadt ...

together form the Rhine-Main-Universities (RMU). DBP 1977 938 Universität Mainz

History

The first University of Mainz goes back to the

Archbishop of Mainz The Elector of Mainz was one of the seven Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire. As both the Archbishop of Mainz and the ruling prince of the Electorate of Mainz, the Elector of Mainz held a powerful position during the Middle Ages. The Archb ...

, Prince-elector and Reichserzkanzler

Adolf II von Nassau Adolph II (or III) of Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein (German: Adolf II. von Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein) (c. 1423 – 6 September 1475) was Archbishop of Mainz from 1461 until 1475. Adolph was a son of Count Adolph II of Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein. In 14 ...

. At the time, establishing a university required papal approval and Adolf II initiated the approval process during his time in office. The university, however, was first opened in 1477 by Adolf's successor to the bishopric,

Diether von Isenburg Diether von Isenburg ( 14127 May 1482) was twice Archbishop (1459–1461 and 1475–1482) and founder of the University of Mainz. As Archbishop of Mainz, he was ''ex officio'' Elector and Lord Chancellor of Germany. Biography Diether was a son ...

. In 1784 the university was opened up for Protestants and Jews (curator ). It became one of the largest Catholic universities in Europe with ten chairs in theology alone. In the confusion after the establishment of the Mainz Republic of 1792 and its subsequent recapture by the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

ns, academic activity came to a gradual standstill. In 1798 the university became active again under French governance, and lectures in the department of medicine took place until 1823. Only the faculty of theology continued teaching during the 19th century, albeit as a theological seminary (since 1877 "College of Philosophy and Theology"). The current Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz was founded in 1946 by the French occupying power. In a decree on 1 March the French military government implied that the University of Mainz would continue to exist: the university shall be "enabled to resume its function". The remains of

anti-aircraft warfare Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...

barracks erected in 1938 after the

remilitarization of the Rhineland The remilitarization of the Rhineland () began on 7 March 1936, when German military forces entered the Rhineland, which directly contravened the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties. Neither France nor Britain was prepared for a milit ...

during the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

served as the university's first buildings and are still in use today. The continuation of academic activity between the old university and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, in spite of an interruption spanning over 100 years, is contested. During the time up to its reopening only a

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy ...

and

midwifery Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (including care of the newborn), in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. In many cou ...

college survived. In 1972, the effect of the 1968 student protests began to take a toll on the university's structure. The departments (Fakultäten) were dismantled and the university was organized into broad fields of study (Fachbereiche). Finally in 1974 Peter Schneider was elected as the first president of what was now a "constituted group-university" institute of higher education. In 1990 Jürgen Zöllner became university president yet spent only a year in the position after he was appointed Minister for "Science and Advanced Education" for the State of Rhineland-Palatinate. As the coordinator for the SPD's higher education policy, this furloughed professor from the Institute for Physiological Chemistry played a decisive role in the SPD's higher education policy and in the development of Study Accounts.

Faculties

The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz is divided in ten faculties since 1 September 2010. * Faculty of Catholic Theology * Faculty of 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 usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are ...

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. The neighboring towns and cities are Speyer, Landau, Philippsburg, Karlsruhe and Wörth. Coat ...

. On campus next to the university is the

Max Planck Institute for Chemistry The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (Otto Hahn Institute; german: Max Planck Institut für Chemie - Otto Hahn Institut) is a non-university research institute under the auspices of the Max Planck Society (German: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) in ...

, the

Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research The Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (german: Max-Planck-Institut für Polymerforschung) is a scientific center in the field of polymer science located in Mainz, Germany. The institute was founded in 1983 by Erhard W. Fischer and Gerhard ...

, the

Institute of Molecular Biology The Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) is a modern research centre on the campus of the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. It is funded by the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation and the state of Rheinland Palatinate. The scientists a ...

, 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, an ...

, 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, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

and

nutrition science Nutritional science (also nutrition science, sometimes short ''nutrition'', dated trophology) is the science that studies the physiological process of nutrition (primarily human nutrition), interpreting the nutrients and other substances in food ...

. One can nonetheless study the history of books,

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

visual arts The visual arts are Art#Forms, genres, media, and styles, art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as ...

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

, 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 The (European Choir Academy) is a German mixed choir, founded by Joshard Daus in 1997 as a group formed by students of two music universities, the University of Mainz and the University of the Arts Bremen. They have performed internationally and r ...

, founded by

Joshard Daus Joshard Daus (1947, Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List ...

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 Br ...

. 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'' and '' Opportunity'', exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rovers to explore the Martian surface ...

s '' Spirit'' and ''

Opportunity Opportunity may refer to: Places * Opportunity, Montana, an unincorporated community, United States * Opportunity, Nebraska, an unincorporated community, United States * Opportunity, Washington, a former census-designated place, United States * ...

'', a miniature Mössbauer spectrometer, was developed at the university. The University of Mainz does not 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 fees.

Rankings

It is ranked in the top 300 universities worldwide by the

Academic Ranking of World Universities The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong Universi ...

2017 and ''Times Higher Education'' World University Rankings 2017. According to the report of the

German Research Foundation The German Research Foundation (german: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; 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 Germ ...

(DFG) from 2018, the University of Mainz is one of the best universities in natural sciences in Germany. In the period under review from 2014 to 2016, the University of Mainz received the highest number of competitive grants in the natural sciences. The university also achieved the first place in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its 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 which rel ...

. 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.

Notable people

Old University

* Johann Joachim Becher, physician, professor of medicine 1663–1664 *

Johann Friedrich von Pfeiffer Johann Friedrich von Pfeiffer (7 October 1718 – 5 March 1787) was one of the most important German figures of political economy of the 18th century along with Philipp von Hörnigk and Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi. He was a leading pract ...

, 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 brai ...

, 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 naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist and revolutionary. At an early age, he accompanied his father, Johann Reinhold F ...

, naturalist and world traveller, university librarian 1788–1793

Professors (post 1946)

Karl-Otto Apel Karl-Otto Apel (; 15 March 1922 – 15 May 2017) was a German philosopher and Professor Emeritus at the University of Frankfurt am Main. He specialized on the philosophy of language and was thus considered a communication theorist. He developed ...

(philosophy) * Kai Arzheimer (political science) * Herbert Braun (theology) * Hauke Brunkhorst (education) * Micha Brumlik (education) *

Paul J. Crutzen Paul Jozef Crutzen (; 3 December 1933 – 28 January 2021) was a Dutch meteorologist and atmospheric chemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 for his work on atmospheric chemistry and specifically for his efforts in studying ...

(chemistry, Nobel Prize 1995) *

Fritz Strassmann Friedrich Wilhelm Strassmann (; 22 February 1902 – 22 April 1980) was a German chemist who, with Otto Hahn in December 1938, identified the element barium as a product of the bombardment of uranium with neutrons. Their observation was the key ...

(physics) * Jürgen Falter (political science) *

Hans Galinsky Hans Galinsky (12 May 1909–25 July 1991) was a German American studies scholar. Life and career Galinsky was a professor of comparative literature and American studies at the University of Mainz from 1952 to 1977. He co-founded the Deutsche G ...

(American studies) *

Alfred Kröner Alfred Kröner (8 September 1939 – 22 May 2019) was a German Professor of Geology at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Mainz, Germany. He specialized in the Precambrian geology of Africa and geology of China but worked on many other geo ...

(geology) * Karl Cardinal Lehmann (theology) *

Thomas Metzinger Thomas Metzinger (born 12 March 1958) is a German philosopher and professor of theoretical philosophy at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. , he is an Adjunct Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, a co-founder of thGe ...

(philosophy) *

Gottfried Münzenberg Gottfried Münzenberg (born 17 March 1940) is a German physicist. He studied physics at Justus-Liebig-Universität in Giessen and Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck and completed his studies with a Ph.D. at the University of Giessen ...

(physics) * Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (communication studies) * W. Pannenberg (theology) * Rolf Peffekoven (economics) * Klaus Rose (economics) *

Dorothee Sölle Dorothee Steffensky-Sölle (, 1929–2003), known as Dorothee Sölle, was a German liberation theologian who coined the term " Christofascism". She was born in Cologne and died at a conference in Göppingen from cardiac arrest. Life and career ...

(theology) *

Beatrice Weder di Mauro Beatrice Weder di Mauro (born 3 August 1965) is a Swiss economist who is currently Professor of economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Research Professor and Distinguished Fellow-in-residence at th ...

(economics) *

Isabel Schnabel Isabel Schnabel (née Gödde, born 9 August 1971) is a German economist who has been serving as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank since 2020. She became professor of financial economics at the University of Bonn in 2 ...

(economics) * Werner Weidenfeld (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 from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...

) * Jürgen Gauß (theoretical chemistry) * Uğur Şahin (medicine) * Özlem Türeci (medicine)

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 ; german: Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein (15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859), known as Klemens von Metternich or Prince Metternic ...

, 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 Marie-Luise "Malu" Dreyer (born 6 February 1961) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has served as the 8th and current Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate since 13 January 2013. She is the first woman to hold th ...

( SPD, Minister President of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) 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 ...

); Rainer Brüderle ( FDP, Federal Minister for Economics and Technology);

Horst Teltschik Horst may refer to: Science * Horst (geology), a raised fault block bounded by normal faults or graben People * Horst (given name) * Horst (surname) * ter Horst, Dutch surname * van der Horst, Dutch surname Places Settlements Germany * Horst, ...

(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 Franz Josef Jung (born 5 March 1949) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He became Federal Minister of Defence in the Grand coalition cabinet of Angela Merkel on 22 November 2005. In October 2009 he became Ministe ...

( 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 Karlheinz Oswald (born 1958) is a German sculptor known for his portraits and cast iron sculptures, many of dancers, often displayed in public places. He studied at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz from 1981, and between 1983 and 1988 ...

; sports journalist Béla Réthy; political journalist Peter Scholl-Latour; Dieter Stolte, former director-general of ZDF; soprano Elisabeth Scholl; a founder of American

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

cinema

Jonas Mekas Jonas Mekas (; December 24, 1922 – January 23, 2019) was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who has been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema". Mekas' work has been exhibited in museums and at festivals worldwid ...

; his brother Adolfas Mekas, film director, writer and educator; mural artist Rainer Maria Latzke; the German climatologist Wolfgang Seiler;

Abbas Zaryab Abbas Zaryab or 'Abbās Zaryāb ( fa, عباس زریاب; full name: Abbas (Zaryab) Khoyi ; August 13, 1919 – February 3, 1995) was a historian, translator, literature Professor and Iranologist. He was the author of several books, including a li ...

, 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 Carolyn Arthur "Biddy" Martin (born 1951) is an American academic, author, and a former president of Amherst College, in Amherst, Massachusetts. Before becoming president at Amherst, she was Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, ...

; 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:Mainz, University of

University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. With approximately 32,000 stu ...

Educational institutions established in the 15th century Johannes Gutenberg Educational institutions established in 1946 1946 establishments in Germany Universities and colleges in Rhineland-Palatinate