Mainz 2021
Mainz - On the Tracks of Johannes Gutenberg
I always try to visit new places, not only around the world, also in Germany. Since I haven't been to Mainz yet, it was a perfect timing, that my favorite football team came to an away game to Mainz. So I went to the stadium on a Friday night with the chance to explore the city of Mainz the next day.
The next morning started with a calm Rhine walk, enjoying the sunshine and the chirping of the birds. It was really enjoyable and after passing by two of the Rhine Gates - the Kaisertor and the Raimunditor - I decided to change the direction to walk to the city centre. During the way, I could see the Protestant Christ Church, built between 1896 and 1903, the important Renaissance Electoral Palace, the former city residence of the Archbishop of Mainz and the building of the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate.
The whole atmosphere and look was underlined by the weekend market in front of the Cathedral. It reminded me a bit of the Minster Market in Freiburg. After having a typical onion tart for lunch, I continued walking around the city centre.
The next destination of the sightseeing tour was the Schillerplatz, one of the central squares in the downtown. In the past, the sqaure was also used as a market square, nowadays, it's one of the largest green squares with adjoining retail shops and aristocratic courts from Baroque and Rococo periods. Located on the Schillerplatz, it's possible to find many sculptures - a Schiller Monument, a bronze sculpture of a guard drummer of the Prince Guard, the Bajazz with the lantern and the most famous one, the Fastnachtsbrunnen. The fountain was erected as a symbol of the carnival season in 1967. The fountain doesn't look like a normal fountain. In the middle of a water basin, which is surrounded by red sandstone, there is a nine meter high bronze tower, in which more than two hundred bronze figures and symbolic representations are interwoven - like the city goddess Moguntia, Father Rhine with daughter Mosel, Till Eulenspiegel, the fool Bajazz with his lanterns, the man with a board in front of his head and many more. These characters, motifs and mythical creatures were chosen closely linked to the history of the city and the carnival of Mainz. The fountain sculpture is designed in three tiers: the lower tier depicts the tangible daily life, the middle tier depicts the ironic world of Shrovetide and the upper tier depicts the human quest for freedom and detachment before the water returns to the lower tier falling into everyday misery.
Not far away, there is one of the most picturesque spots in the old town of Mainz - Kirschgarten. Kirschgarten, which literally means "cherry garden" is a square, lined with half-timbered houses and a fountain (Kirschgartenbrunnen) in the centre. The square already existed in 1329 as "Im Kirschgarten". The name comes from the source "Kirschborn", which arose there at the old Rochus hospital. Kirschgarten is a good place to discover the traces of Mainz art history and architecture. The details of the half-timbered houses are quite interesting and there are still many old wooden doors with beautiful carvings.
After exploring the beautiful half-timbered houses, I took a coffee break at "Caffè Stivale", a great coffee shop in the Augustinerstraße. During the break, I also took the chance to check out other sightseeing places, a bit outside of the city centre. I found out, that there is an ancient Roman Theatre, close to a train station. During the construction of the railway in 1884, the foundations of the theatre were discovered. Also in 1914, the remains of walls came to light during canal works. But it was the art historian Ernst Neeb, who firstly recognized these chunks of stones as the remains of a Roman Theatre in 1916. It was shown, that the history of Mainz is closely linked to that of Rome and can therefore look back on 2000 years garrison history, whereas the chapter of the Mainz Citadel belongs to the modern garrison history. The Citadel was built in 1660 as part of the Mainz Fortress and is located close to the Roman Theatre. I explored the area around the Fortress walls and were quite amazed by its colorful surroundings due to the autumn season.
The last stop during my trip to Mainz was the Gutenberg-Museum, which is one of the oldest printing and typeface museums in the world. It's main attractions include two copies of the Gutenberg Bible, the oldest book printed with movable type, and a temporary exhibition on typography and book design. The museum was founded in 1900 on the occasion of Johannes Gutenberg's 500th birthday in order to make his inventions and works of art known to a wide audience. Furthermore, written and printed matter from as many different cultures as possible should be exhibited.
The collection is based on books and machines donated by publishers, printing press manufacturers and printers. Over the time, the museum collected exhibits in the fields of printing technology, typography, art prints, paper, the history of writing in different cultures and so on to get an overview of 500 years of book printing. The Bookplate Collection for example contains bookplates belonged to figures as Charles Lindbergh, Albert Einstein, Charles Dickens, Franlin D. Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler. Moreover, the Gutenberg-Museum has an extensive collection of printed graphics which include depictions of printers and technical illustrations. For me, it was quite interesting to learn a lot about the history of Johannes Gutenberg and the invention of letterpress printing. I was also impressed by the different influences, like writing in Asian cultures, which was also explained in a comprehensive collection of items pertaining to the print and script culture of East Asia - especially from China, Korea and Japan - and Islam.
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