Ancient Mainz
Mainz is a city with over two thousand years of history. It was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman empire.
The Man of the Millennium
The first books printed using movable type were manufactured in Mainz by Johannes Gutenberg in the early 1450s. The invention of printing was of such consequence that Gutenberg is considered the most important individual of the last millennium. He is also called the godfather of Information Technology.
Let’s Read
The Gutenberg Museum in Mainz shows how the long and costly process of hand-written works carried out by scribes and monks on tablets, parchment and rudimentary paper, a process some 4,000 years old, abruptly ended with Gutenberg’s invention. It allowed everyone access to knowledge. All lives on Earth were changed forever by the printing press.
Party Town
Parties, parades, costumes, scathing political commentary, scanty outfits, normal citizens as kings and generals, while the powerful are ridiculed by 'fools' and court jesters: Carnival in Mainz! Mainz is along with Cologne and Düsseldorf one of Germany’s foremost carnival cities.
Soccer Carnival
The fans of the local soccer club, 1. FSV Mainz 05, take the same carnival atmosphere to the home games of their team. After every Mainzer goal the Narrhallamarsch, a famous carnival tune, is played.
The Long Wait
FSV Mainz 05 has a long history in the German soccer leagues and was the German amateur champion in 1982 but the team did not reach the 1. Bundesliga until 2004. After its move to a new stadium, the Coface Arena, in 2011 Mainz 05 hopes to become a mainstay in the Bundesliga.
The Politics of Wine
Mainz has been a wine growing region since Roman times. Today it is one of the centers of the German wine industry and the seat of the state’s wine minister. Due to the importance of the wine industry the state Rhineland-Palatinate is the only German state to have such a department.
Das Zweite
Germany has two public, non-profit broadcasting corporations. The first, ARD, known as “Das Erste” (The First) was established in 1950 and encompasses nine regional public television and radio stations. The second, ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen – Second German TV) was founded in 1961 and is headquartered in Mainz. Since the 1980’s there have also been a number of private broadcasting companies in Germany.