Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz enjoys closer ties with neighboring France than with almost any other country in the world today. The origins of this special relationship reach back to the immediate postwar period, when the French military administration played a key role in reestablishing university operations in Mainz, laying the foundation for what is now Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. In the years that followed, particularly strong academic partnerships developed with Mainz’s sister city of Dijon and its university. These connections have deepened and evolved across generations.
But the relationship between the University of Mainz and France goes back even further. This long-cultivated connection is the focus of a lecture series organized in cooperation with the German-French Society Mainz e.V. In seven lectures from April to November 2027, the series will explore the many links between both the old University of Mainz and today’s Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and France, from the beginnings in the late Middle Ages to the present day.
