Mainz City Archives

The Archive possesses more than 8,000-meters -- over 25,000-feet, five miles, of documents on its shelves and in its collections.

The Mainz City Archive is the “City Memory.” If you have questions pertaining to Mainz history or any Mainz ancestors you may have which can’t be answered with literary help, you’ve come to the right place for assistance when you consult the Archive. Among the Archive’s charges are the care and maintenance of medieval parchment documents, historically important (“old”) municipal government files, church records as well as birth-, marriage- and death certificates and registers, designs, plans, and photographs, and documents or inheritances left by important individuals or associations.

Access and use of the Archive is available to all. The archivists will help you locate documents you are seeking. Depending on which archive you wish to search, you may under certain circumstances be required to read older German scripts or have competency in Latin or the French language.

Archival documents are not lent out. They may be viewed exclusively in the Users’ Room.

Our Archival Treasures housed in the Mainz Archive are:

• Some 6,000 medieval parchment documents dating back to 1106
• Files and official books encompassing the time of the Elector Princes to 1798
• Municipal government files from 1798 on
• The archives of immediate neighboring, incorporated or formerly incorporated communities including those on the right  bank of the Rhine
• Archives of inheritances of institutions and persons
• The autograph and original document collection, the picture and design collection, and the Modern and Contemporary History Collection
• The Mainz City Chronicle, references to newspaper articles since 1956
• The Coin Collection of some 18,000 coins

Useful Items for Genealogists and Family Researchers

• Church registers and card indices for Mainz and several suburbs to 1798
• Birth-, marriage-, and death register for Mainz and all incorporated left bank Rhine communities from 1798 on (ending 110 years after birth, 80 years after marriage, 30 years after death)
• The Mainz and Mombach Family Registers from the end of the 18th – beginning of the 20th Century.
• Address books
• Municipal naturalization records from 1648 on

Copies
Whether or not the Archive can make copies of documents depends entirely upon

their physical condition. The archive offers b+w copies, photocopies and document scanning services. The cost for these services is based on current fee schedules and must be paid cash in advance or per bank transfer.

Research
The Archive charges a handling fee for answering all non-scientific research inquiry correspondence. This is based on time expended performing research.

Note that there are certain archives to which access is prohibited. This is based on data- security and/or personal identity protection laws. The regulations of the Rheinland-Pfalz State Archives govern all access to and use of the Archives.

Transportation
Public transportation to the Mainz Archive is provided by Bus lines #9, #68 and #70

Bust stop Kaisertor/Stadtbioliothek

Paid public parking is located on the banks of the Rhine/Rheinufer.

Please note extra: the picture and design collections are closed from 12:30pm – 2pm and on Saturday

Archives may be ordered from 10am – 12, and from 1.30pm – 4.30pm except on Saturdays. Saturday requests must be presented at least one day in advance.