History
From the Electoral Academy to Mainz University of Applied Sciences
Mainz University of Applied Sciences traces its roots to two educational institutions from Electoral Mainz and Grand Ducal Darmstadt.
One of these was the School of Drawing for Artisans, founded in Mainz in 1841 (renamed the School of Art and Crafts in 1894, renamed the State School of Art and Crafts in 1933 and dissolved in 1939), which traces its origins to the Electoral Academy of Painting and Sculpture founded in 1757.
The other was the Grand Ducal State School of Architecture, founded in Darmstadt in 1876, which was renamed the “State School of Art and Crafts” in 1933 and, in 1936, relocated to Mainz from Darmstadt as the “Adolf Hitler School of Architecture,” along with its teaching staff. In February 1945, the Adolf Hitler School of Architecture was destroyed in an air raid.
After World War II, the “State School of Architecture and State School of Art” was officially reopened on October 3, 1946, in the Auditorium Maximum of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Starting in 1955, the State School of Architecture and Regional School of Art, with its two main departments, was housed in a new building at Holzstraße 36. In 1957, the State School of Architecture was renamed the “State School of Engineering for Civil Engineering and Surveying in Mainz.” In 1959, the State School of Fine Arts was renamed the “State School of Applied Arts in Mainz.”
In 1963, the school moved into the expansion buildings and new facilities at the Holzstraße location.
In the late 1960s, another branch of education emerged with the field of economics; in 1964, the “Higher School of Economics for the Rheinhessen Region” began operations.
The foundation for the Rhineland-Palatinate University of Applied Sciences was laid on June 1, 1970, with the passage of the University of Applied Sciences Act. In 1971, the “State School of Engineering and Applied Arts in Mainz” was incorporated into the “Rhineland-Palatinate University of Applied Sciences.”
On September 1, 1996, the new University of Applied Sciences Act came into effect, which regulated the division of the Rhineland-Palatinate University of Applied Sciences into seven independent universities. Mainz University of Applied Sciences was reestablished in 1996 as an independent institution with three schools (School of Engineering, School of Design, School of Business).
On September 1, 2014, Mainz University of Applied Sciences changed its name to Mainz University.
Since 2019, Mainz University of Applied Sciences has had the LUX Pavilion, a space for regularly changing exhibitions and a hub for interested members of the public who wish to learn about the university’s activities.
In June 2020, the groundbreaking ceremony took place for the second construction phase of Mainz University of Applied Sciences at the Campus site. The topping-out ceremony was celebrated on September 24, 2021. In the fall of 2023, the departments of Technology and Design—which currently have approximately 2,600 students and are housed at the Holzstraße and Wallstraße locations—are scheduled to move into the new building, which has a usable floor area of about 13,000 square meters.
