University of Mainz

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Historic Seal of the University of Mainz
Motto	Ut omnes unum sint German:Dass alle eins seien
Motto in English	That they all may be one
Type	Public
Established	1477 (University of Mainz) Re-opened 1946 (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)
Budget	€ 504 million (2018)[1]
President	Georg Krausch[de]
Academic staff	4,353[2]
Administrative staff	7,825[2]
Students	32,000
Location	Mainz , Rhineland Palatinate , Germany 49°59′32″N8°14′17″E / 49.99222°N 8.23806°E /49.99222; 8.23806
Colors	Red
Affiliations	U15
Website	uni-mainz.de

TheJohannes Gutenberg University Mainz(German:Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is apublicresearch universityinMainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It is named after the printerJohannes Gutenbergsince 1946. As of 2018,^[update]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 theGerman U15, a group of fifteen major research and medical universities in Germany. It also participates in theIT-Cluster Rhine-Main-Neckarand forms part of theRhine-Main-Universities(RMU) along withGoethe University FrankfurtandTechnische Universität Darmstadt.

Founded in 1477, it is one of the oldest universities in Europe and one of the most prestigious in Germany.^[3]

The first University of Mainz goes back to theArchbishop of Mainz, Prince-elector and ReichserzkanzlerAdolf II von Nassau. 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. In 1784 the university was opened up for Protestants and Jews (curatorAnselm Franz von Bentzel-Sternau[de]). It became one of the largest Catholic universities in Europe with ten chairs in theology alone. In the confusion after the establishment of theMainz Republicof 1792 and its subsequentrecaptureby thePrussians, 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 theFrench 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 ofanti-aircraft warfarebarracks erected in 1938 after theremilitarization of the Rhinelandduring theThird Reichserved 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 aseminaryandmidwiferycollege survived.

In 1972, the effect of the1968 student protestsbegan 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 1990Jürgen Zöllnerbecame 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 theSPD'shigher 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.

The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz is divided in ten faculties since 1 September 2010.

• 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
• Faculty of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Geosciences
• Faculty of Biology

The academies for music and art are independent art colleges of the Johannes Gutenberg University, theHochschule für Musik Mainzand theKunsthochschule Mainz[de].^[4]

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 formerbarracksin 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 inGermersheim. On campus next to the university is theMax Planck Institute for Chemistry, theMax Planck Institute for Polymer Research, theInstitute of Molecular Biology, theelectron acceleratorMAMI, the researchreactorTRIGA, thebotanical garden, a sports stadium and an indoor swimming pool. Mainz Academy of Arts (Kunsthochschule Mainz) is located off campus.

The range of studies is comprehensive; the university lacks some technical studies,veterinary medicineandnutrition 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^[update]) and consists of over 150 institutions and clinics. The university offers international programs, such as the award-winning choirEuropaChorAkademie, founded byJoshard Dausin 1997, in collaboration with theUniversity of the Arts Bremen.^[5]

One of the instrumentscarried by theMars Exploration RoversSpiritandOpportunity, a miniatureMössbauer 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.^[6]

University rankings
Overall – Global & National
QSWorld2024[7] 464 27 THEWorld2024[8] 251–300 25–31 ARWUWorld2023[9] 201–300 10–19 QSEurope[citation needed] QSEmployability[citation needed] THEEmployability[citation needed]

As per theQS World University Rankingsfor 2024, the university holds the 464th position worldwide and is placed 27th nationally.^[7]On theTimes 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 theARWU World Rankingsfor 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 theGerman Research Foundation(DFG) from 2018, the University of Mainz is one of the best universities innatural sciencesin Germany. In the period under review from 2014 to 2016, the University of Mainz received the highest number of competitive grants in thenatural sciences. The university also achieved the first place inphysics.^[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]

• Johann Joachim Becher, physician, professor of medicine 1663–1664
• Johann Friedrich von Pfeiffer, economist, professor ofcameral science1784–1787
• Andreas Joseph Hofmann, professor of law 1784–1793, president of the first democratically elected parliament in Germany
• Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring, professor of anatomy and physiology 1784–1797
• Georg Forster, naturalist and world traveller, university librarian 1788–1793

• 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(philosophy)
• Gottfried Münzenberg(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, discoverednuclear fissionwithOtto Hahn)
• Werner Weidenfeld(political science, former adviser of German chancellorHelmut Kohl)
• Jürgen Gauß(theoretical chemistry)
• Uğur Şahin(medicine)
• Özlem Türeci(medicine)
• Klaus Wälde(economics)^[15]

Alumni of the old University include theologianFriedrich Speeas well as Austrian diplomatKlemens von Metternich, who studied law from 1790 to 1792, and revolutionaryAdam Lux.

Among notable alumni from the post-1946 University of Mainz are German politiciansMalu Dreyer(SPD, Minister President ofRhineland-Palatinate);Rainer Brüderle(FDP, Federal Minister for Economics and Technology);Horst Teltschik(former security advisor to ChancellorHelmut Kohland president of theMunich 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 physicistVera Lüth; nuclear and particle physicistJohanna Stachel; sculptorKarlheinz Oswald; sports journalistBéla Réthy; political journalistPeter Scholl-Latour; Dieter Stolte, former director-general ofZDF; sopranoElisabeth Scholl; a founder of Americanavant-gardecinemaJonas Mekas; his brother Adolfas Mekas, film director, writer and educator; mural artistRainer Maria Latzke; the German climatologistWolfgang Seiler;Abbas Zaryab, notable Iranian scholar and historian; IndonesianToraja Churchpastor and politician,Ishak Pamumbu Lambe;^[16]Srinivas Kishanrao Saidapur, an Indian reproductive biologist; American educatorBiddy Martin;Stanisław Potrzebowski, one of leaders of theridnovirmovement in Poland; German opera singerChristine Esterházy; andRuth Katharina Martha Pfau, nun, physician and writer who devoted more than 50 years of her life to fighting leprosy in Pakistan.

• List of medieval universities
• List of universities in Germany

• www.uni-mainz.de official website