Mainz is a city in Germany and the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was a politically important seat of the Prince-elector of Mainz (Archbishopric of Mainz) under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire. Mainz is located on the river Rhine across from Wiesbaden, in the western part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main Region; in the modern age, Frankfurt shares much of its regional importance. Mainz is a city with over two thousand years of history. The first European books printed using movable type were manufactured in Mainz by Gutenberg in the early 1450s.
Mainz is famous for its Carnival, the Mainzer Fassenacht or Fassnacht, which has developed since the early 19th century. Carnival in Mainz has its roots in the criticism of social and political injustices under the shelter of cap and bells. Today, the uniforms of many traditional Carnival clubs still imitate and caricature the uniforms of the French and Prussian troops of the past. The height of the carnival season is on Rosenmontag (“rose Monday”, before Ash Wednesday), when there is a large parade in Mainz, with more than 500,000 people celebrating in the streets. The first ever Katholikentag, a festival-like gathering of German Catholics, was held in Mainz in 1848. In 2021, UNESCO added the cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz to the World Heritage list because of their shared Jewish heritage as the cradle of European Jewry (ShUM Cities).
The city is well-known in Germany as the seat of Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (literally, “Second German Television”, ZDF), one of two federal nationwide TV broadcasters. There are also a couple of radio stations based in Mainz.
Mainz is one of the centers of the German wine economy as a center for wine trade and the seat of the state’s wine minister. Due to the importance and history of the wine industry for the federal state, Rhineland-Palatinate is the only state to have such a department. The city is member of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network. Many wine traders also work in the town. The sparkling wine producer Kupferberg produces in Mainz-Hechtsheim and even Henkell – now located on the other side of the river Rhine – had been founded once in Mainz. The famous Blue Nun, one of the first branded wines, had been marketed by the family Sichel.
Mainz had been a wine growing region since Roman times and the image of the wine town Mainz is fostered by the tourist center. The Haus des Deutschen Weines (English: House of German Wine), is located in beside the theater. It is the seat of the German Wine Academy, the German Wine Institute (DWI) and the German Wine Fund (DWF). The Mainzer Weinmarkt (wine market) is one of the great wine fairs in Germany.
[caption id="attachment_162391" align="aligncenter" width="485"] John Jacob Astor by Gilbert Stuart[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Astor family is a family known for its prominence in business, society, and politics in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Astor family is of German origin, appearing in North America during the eighteenth century with John Jacob Astor.
John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor) was the youngest of four sons born to butcher Johann Jacob Astor and M...
[caption id="attachment_195555" align="aligncenter" width="437"] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 December 1948[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a historic document that was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at its third session on 10 December 1948 as Resolution 217 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France. Of the then 58 members of the United Nations, 48 voted in favor, none against, eight abstained, and two did not vote.
The Declaration consists o...
