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University of Mainz

Coordinates: 49°59′32″N 8°14′17″E / 49.99222°N 8.23806°E / 49.99222; 8.23806
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Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Historic Seal of the University of Mainz
MottoUt omnes unum sint
German: Dass alle eins seien
Motto in English
That they all may be one
TypePublic
Established1477 (University of Mainz)
Re-opened
1946 (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)
Budget€ 504 million (2018)[1]
PresidentGeorg Krausch [de]
Academic staff
4,353[2]
Administrative staff
7,825[2]
Students32,000
Location
Mainz
,
Rhineland Palatinate
,
Germany

49°59′32″N 8°14′17″E / 49.99222°N 8.23806°E / 49.99222; 8.23806
Colors  Red
AffiliationsU15
Websiteuni-mainz.de

The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (German: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It is named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. As of 2018, 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 and forms part of the Rhine-Main-Universities (RMU) along with Goethe University 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.[3]

History

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A Look at the History of Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz

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With the opening of the University of Mainz in 1477, the Archbishop of Mainz, elector and arch-chancellor of the German nation, Diether von Isenburg, realized a dream of his predecessor, Adolf II von Nassau. In doing so he was in line with the spirit of the times, as regional universities had already been founded by then in almost all of the larger territorial states. In addition to theology, medicine and church and Roman law, the seven "free arts" of grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music were taught.

Already Highly Renowned in the Year 1508

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The University of Mainz developed well: In the first few decades, the number of students presumably rose to 200 and in 1508 the university was already highly renowned (Petrus Ravenna). However, as the repeated attempts at reform (1523, 1535 and 1541) reflect, it soon experienced its first crisis, which was caused above all by an inadequate economic foundation. In addition, the Reformation also left its mark on Mainz.

By opening a Jesuit college in 1561, the Archbishop of Mainz was pursuing several goals: Comprehensive educational initiatives were intended to aid the Catholic Counterreformation and help renew and stabilize the university. The latter succeeded not only in terms of theology but also the area of medicine. In the end, there was even the need for a new building: Between 1615 and 1618 a special building was erected for the university, the Domus Universitatis, where the Journalistic Seminar and the Institute for European History are located today.

In Mainz, as elsewhere, the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) resulted in a significant decline in the number of students. When Swedish troops occupied the city, the members of the university abandoned the city and continued teaching "in exile," for example in Cologne. After the war, the university was slow to recover.

Secure Economic Foundation

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Domus Universitatis, a historic university building in Mainz.

Following the abolishment of the Jesuit order in 1773, the College of Mainz was disbanded that same year. This necessitated a renewed reform of the university and its bylaws: In 1781, the Mainz University fund was established, which for the first time created a secure economic foundation for the college. However, the expansion of the disciplines offered was also of great importance: Various areas of history were taught in a new faculty of historical statistics, as well as political science and statistics. The cameralistic faculty was also established, where, for example, applied mathematics, botany or veterinary treatment of livestock was taught. As before, the curriculum continued to include theology and medicine. This extensive offering attracted up to 700 students in the next few years. In this period, when the University of Mainz was shaped and determined by the Enlightenment, Georg Forster was active as the university librarian in Mainz – presumably one of the best-known Mainz scholars of the old university.

The French Revolution also left many traces in Mainz: In its wake, the first republic on German soil was founded in 1792. As a result of wars and unrest, as well as the conquest and recapture of the city, teaching at the University of Mainz finally ceased. The medical faculty held on to the end and awarded doctorates until 1818, but five years later the last lectures were held there as well.

Nevertheless, the Mainz University fund continued to exist, as did the Mainz "Accouchement," a school for midwives that was founded in 1784, thus preserving a little of the university tradition until 1946, when the university reopened. A seminary also continued to exist. In the meantime there were continual discussions about reestablishing the entire university-level teaching operation, but these plans regularly failed due to a lack of financing.

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

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Forum of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz covered with snow

On May 15, 1946, the college resumed its teaching activities under the new name of "Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz," named after the notable German inventor, Johannes Gutenberg. A total of 2,088 students were enrolled in the opening semester, and for the first time female students were also enrolled. Instruction in the natural sciences began in the winter semester of 1946/47, which led to the number of enrolled students to jump to 4,205.

With this reopening, the French military government wished to make a contribution to educating Germans in a "new spirit" – also, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, which they had founded, did not have a university at the time. The university was located in a former barracks, which enabled it to present itself as a campus university, but it was also somewhat distant from the center of town. In order to secure its integration into the lives of the citizens of Mainz, various institutes have been located in the center of town in the meantime and the university organizes many events there, such as lectures and the science fair (the first of which was held in 2002).

In the following decades the University of Mainz put in an almost uninterrupted course of growth: The general increase in the number of students also benefitted the university. It expanded its range of disciplines, thereby increasing its ability to attract students. The general course of studies, the international summer course and the numerous international partnerships (in addition to other aspects) are evidence of the goals that the citizens of Mainz and the French were equally pursuing by reopening the school. The role of theologians, the name of the university and many street names on campus, however, forge links to the "old" university. In this way, the Johannes Gutenberg University draws on many fine and honored traditions, which also signify an obligation that is set forth in its mission statement.

Statue of Johannes Gutenberg at the University of Mainz

Faculties

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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 Kunsthochschule Mainz [de].[4]

Campus

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

Academic profile

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The range of studies is comprehensive; the university lacks some technical studies, veterinary medicine 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 (as of 2010) 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.[5]

One of the instruments carried by the Mars Exploration Rovers 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.[6]

Rankings

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University rankings
Overall – Global & National
QS World 2024[7] 464 27
THE World 2024[8] 251–300 25–31
ARWU World 2023[9] 201–300 10–19
QS Europe[citation needed]
QS Employability[citation needed]
THE Employability[citation needed]

As per the QS World University Rankings for 2024, the university holds the 464th position worldwide and is placed 27th nationally.[7] On the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, it finds itself within the 251–300 range globally, and falls within the 25–31 range on a national scale in the 2024 edition.[8] 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.[9]

According to the report of the German Research Foundation (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.[10] 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.[11]

By subject

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Notable people

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Old University

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Professors (post 1946)

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Alumni

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Alumni of the old University include theologian Friedrich Spee as well as Austrian diplomat Klemens von Metternich, 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); Rainer Brüderle (FDP, Federal Minister for Economics and Technology); Horst Teltschik [de] (former security advisor to Chancellor Helmut Kohl 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; soprano Elisabeth Scholl; a founder of American avant-garde 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;[16] 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.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz in Zahlen Archived 27 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine, September 2019
  2. ^ a b "Zahlenspiegel 2015" (PDF) (in German). University of Mainz. pp. 54–56. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 December 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  3. ^ Rüegg, Walter (1993). Geschichte der Universität in Europa. München: C. H. Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-36952-0.
  4. ^ "Kunsthochschule Mainz: Historie". Archived from the original on 23 January 2010. Retrieved 29 March 2011. With the amendment to the Higher Education Act in the fall of 2010 the Academy from the Department of the University structure removed and renamed to art school in Mainz at the Johannes Gutenberg University., Call Date 29 March 2011
  5. ^ "International Study Programs". University of Mainz. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  6. ^ "Rückemeldebeitrag". 7 April 2025.
  7. ^ a b "QS World University Rankings 2024". QS World University Rankings. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  8. ^ a b "World University Rankings 2024". Times Higher Education World University Rankings. 27 September 2023. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  9. ^ a b "2023 Academic Ranking of World Universities". Academic Ranking of World Universities. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  10. ^ Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, ed. (18 July 2018), "Förderatlas 2018", Forschungsberichte (in German) (1 ed.), Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, pp. 127 ff., ISBN 978-3-527-34520-5
  11. ^ "Aufgaben der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)". dfg.de (in German). Archived from the original on 10 April 2019. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  12. ^ "QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022". QS World University Rankings. 23 March 2023.
  13. ^ "World University Rankings by subject". Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
  14. ^ "ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2022". Academic Ranking of World Universities.
  15. ^ "Chair of Macroeconomics, Johannes Gutenberg-University". Macro.economics.uni-mainz.de. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  16. ^ "Mantan Ketua BPS Gereja Toraja, Pdt I.P Lambe Wafat, Berikut Biografi Singkatnya". Kareba Toraja. 1 January 2021. Archived from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
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