Mainz
Mainz is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in the Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region—Germany's second-largest metropolitan region after Rhine-Ruhr—which also encompasses the cities of Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Darmstadt, Offenbach am Main, and Hanau.
Mainz is located at the northern end of the Upper Rhine Plain, on the left bank of the Rhine. It is the largest city of Rhenish Hesse, a region of Rhineland-Palatinate that was historically part of Hesse, and is one of Germany's most important wine regions because of its mild climate. Mainz is connected to Frankfurt am Main by the Rhine-Main S-Bahn rapid transit system. Before 1945, Mainz had six boroughs on the other side of the Rhine. Three have been incorporated into Wiesbaden, and three are now independent.
Mainz was founded as Castrum Mogontiacum by Roman general Nero Claudius Drusus in the 1st century BC on the northern frontier of the Roman Empire, and became the capital of the Roman province of Germania Superior. The city was settled by the Franks from 459 on, and in the 8th century it became an important city within the Holy Roman Empire, as capital of the Electorate of Mainz and seat of the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz, the primate of Germany. Mainz Cathedral is one of the three Rhenish Imperial Cathedrals along with Speyer Cathedral and Worms Cathedral. Since the 12th century, Mainz was one of the —a league formed by the cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz—which are referred to as the cradle of Ashkenazi Jewish life and as the center of Jewish life during medieval times. The Jewish heritage of these cities is one of a kind, and has been declared the UNESCO World Heritage Site of. Mainz is the birthplace of Johannes Gutenberg, who invented the printing press and introduced letterpress printing to Europe, starting the global spread of the printing press. Mainz was heavily damaged in World War II; more than 30 air raids destroyed around half of the old town in the city centre, but many buildings were rebuilt post-war.
Like most cities in the Rhineland, Mainz holds extensive carnival celebrations, that are known as the second-most important in Germany, after the celebrations in Cologne. The borough of Lerchenberg is the seat of ZDF, the second-most important German public service television broadcaster, as well as of 3sat, another television broadcaster, that is jointly operated by public broadcasters from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Names and etymology
Although the city is situated opposite the mouth of the Main, the name of Mainz is not from Main, the similarity being perhaps reinforced by folk-etymological reanalysis. Main is from Latin Moenis, the name the Romans used for the river. Linguistic analysis of the many forms that the name "Mainz" has taken on make it clear that it is a simplification of Mogontiacum. The name appears to be Celtic, however, it had also become Roman and was selected by them with a special significance. The Roman soldiers defending Gallia had adopted the Gallic god Mogons, for the meaning of which etymology offers two basic options: "the great one", similar to Latin magnus, which was used in aggrandizing names such as Alexander magnus, "Alexander the Great" and Pompeius magnus, "Pompey the Great", or the god of "might" personified as it appears in young servitors of any type whether of noble or ignoble birth.Mainz has a number of different names in other languages and dialects. In Latin it is known as Mogontiacum or Moguntiacum and, in the local Hessian dialect, it is Määnz or Meenz. It is known as Mayence in French, Magonza in Italian, Maguncia in Spanish, Mogúncia in Portuguese, Moguncja in Polish, in Yiddish, and Mohuč in Czech and Slovak.
Before the 20th century, Mainz was commonly known in the Anglosphere either as Mentz, its English version, or by its French version Mayence. It is the namesake of two American cities named Mentz.
Geography
Topography
Mainz is on the 50th latitude north, on the left bank of the Rhine. The east of the city is opposite where the Main falls into it., the population was 217,272. The city is part of the FrankfurtRheinMain area of 5.9 million people. Mainz can easily be reached from Frankfurt International Airport in 30 minutes by commuter railway or regional trains .The river port of Mainz is located on the Rhine and thus on one of the most important waterways in Germany. The container port hub is north of the town centre.
After the last ice age, sand dunes were deposited in the Rhine valley at what was to become the western edge of the city. The Mainz Sand Dunes area is now a nature reserve with a unique landscape and rare steppe vegetation for this area.
While the Mainz legion camp was founded in 13/12 BC on the Kästrich hill, the associated vici and canabae were erected towards the Rhine. Historical sources and archaeological findings both prove the importance of the military and civilian Mogontiacum as a port city on the Rhine.
Climate
Mainz features a temperate oceanic climate. The city is one of the warmest in Germany in winter.History
Roman Mogontiacum
The Roman stronghold or castrum Mogontiacum, the precursor to Mainz, was founded by the Roman general Drusus perhaps as early as 13/12 BC. As related by Suetonius the existence of Mogontiacum is well established by four years later. File:The Cenotaph of Drusus, an empty tomb raised by Roman troops in 9 AD in honour of the deceased general Drusus, Mogontiacum .jpg|thumb|left|upright|The Drusus monument or Drususstein raised by the troops of Nero Claudius Drusus to commemorate himMogontiacum was an important military town throughout Roman times, probably due to its strategic position at the confluence of the Main and the Rhine. The town of Mogontiacum grew up between the fort and the river. The castrum was the base of Legio XIV Gemina and XVI Gallica, XXII Primigenia, IV Macedonica, I Adiutrix, XXI Rapax, and XIV Gemina, among others. Mainz was also a base of a Roman river fleet, the Classis Germanica. Remains of Roman troop ships and a patrol boat from the late 4th century were discovered in 1982/86 and may now be viewed in the Museum of Ancient Seafaring. A temple dedicated to Isis Panthea and Magna Mater was discovered in 2000 and is open to the public. The city was the provincial capital of Germania Superior, and had an important funeral monument dedicated to Drusus, to which people made pilgrimages for an annual festival from as far away as Lyon. Among the famous buildings were the largest theatre north of the Alps and a bridge across the Rhine. The city was also the site of the assassination of emperor Severus Alexander in 235.
Alemanni forces under Rando sacked the city in 368. From the last day of 405 or 406, the Siling and Asding Vandals, the Suebi, the Alans, and other Germanic tribes crossed the Rhine, possibly at Mainz. Christian chronicles relate that the bishop, Aureus, was put to death by the Alemannian Crocus.
Throughout the changes of time, the Roman castrum never seems to have been permanently abandoned as a military installation, which is a testimony to Roman military judgement. Different structures were built there at different times. The current citadel originated in 1660, but it replaced previous forts. It was used in World War II. One of the sights at the citadel is still the cenotaph raised by legionaries to commemorate their general, Drusus.
Frankish Mainz
In the 4th century, Alemans repeatedly invaded the neighborhood of Mogontiacum. In 357, the city was liberated by the Emperor Julian. The last emperor to station troops serving the western empire at Mainz was Valentinian III, who relied heavily on his Magister militum per Gallias, Flavius Aëtius. In 451, Attila's Huns sacked the city.The Franks from the middle and upper Rhine area took Mainz shortly before 460. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, the Franks under the rule of Clovis I gained control over western Europe by the year 496. Clovis, son of Childeric, became king of the Salians in 481, ruling from Tournai. He converted from paganism to Catholic Christianity. Theudebert I had installed as bishop of Mainz. Dagobert I reinforced the walls of Mainz.
Charlemagne, through a succession of wars against other tribes, built a vast Frankish empire in Europe. Mainz from its central location became important to the empire and to Christianity. Meanwhile, language change was gradually working to divide the Franks.
After the death of Charlemagne, distinctions between France and Germany began to be made. The Rhine roughly formed the border of their territories, whereby the three important episcopal cities of Mainz, Worms and Speyer with their counties to the left of the Rhine were assigned to East Francia.
Christian Mainz
In the early Middle Ages, Mainz played a significant role in the Christianisation of the German and Slavic peoples. The first archbishop in Mainz, Boniface, was killed in 754 while attempting to convert the Frisians to Christianity and is buried in Fulda. The archbishopric of Mainz was established in 781 when Boniface's successor Lullus was granted the pallium by Pope Adrian I. Throughout history, the Archbishops of Mainz held high positions, including serving as archchancellors of the Holy Roman Empire. Notably, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mainz is unique as it is the only diocese in the world with an episcopal see called a Holy See.Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, a 10th-century Hispano-Arabic, Sephardi Jewish traveler, writes the following about the city:
In 1244, Archbishop Siegfried III granted Mainz a city charter, allowing the citizens to establish and elect a city council. In 1461, a feud between two archbishops, Diether von Isenburg and Adolf II von Nassau, caused unrest in the city. Following Archbishop Adolf's raid on Mainz in 1462, those who opposed him, including Johannes Gutenberg, were either expelled or imprisoned. Ultimately, after the death of Archbishop Adolf II, Diether von Isenburg was reinstated as the Archbishop of Mainz, duly elected by the chapter and appointed by the Pope.