Founding Phase 1946—1973

After examining the university records available in 1950, done by historian Professor Theodor Schieffer, establishing a university archive was initially postponed because there were not enough documents of sufficient archival value.

In 1954, an archives commission was established, which included not only the Rector and two professors with an archival background, but also Georg Wilhelm Sante, head of the Wiesbaden State Archives. On 15 May 1956, the archives commission passed a ruling to establish the University Archives and put Sante in charge of the project. However, it was only gradually possible to acquire the first records and to find a suitable space to house the archive. The first continuous study of Mainz university history was carried out in the 1960s by Helmut Mathy (1934—2008).

Interim Archives Management 1973—1981

In 1973, in cooperation with the State Archives Administration (Landesarchivverwaltung) in Koblenz, binding guidelines for working in the archives were established for the first time. In organizational terms, the archives became part of the university’s central administration.

Dr. Krüger from the State Central Archives took over management of the archive and worked in the University Archives for one to two days a week. Under Dr. Krüger, stocks grew significantly. He was the first to structure the archives’ collection and he created the first inventories.

First Full-time Chief Archivist 1981—2012

In 1981 Dr. Jürgen Siggemann took up his duties at the University Archives as the first full-time chief archivist. In the same year, the archives, along with the office and stacks, moved to Duesbergweg in the western part of the campus. Under the presidency of future archives advisory board member Professor Harder, the archives were placed directly under the President’s authority.



The year 1984 brought the archives the opportunity to host the spring meeting of Specialist Group 8 of the Association of German Archivists, which gathers together colleagues from universities and scientific institutions.



In 1985, an archives advisory board was established to provide scientific advice and organizational support to archives management.



A turning point took place when the archives moved again, this time to the main building at Forum 2. The archives management had turned to the university management for help because the single office was too cramped, especially as it also served as a reading room for archive users.



In 1994, the archive once again hosted a meeting for Specialist Group 8, this time on a larger scale, including East German colleagues. In 2012, Dr. Siggemann retired for reasons of age.

The Archive as a Department of the University Library since 2012

With Dr. Christian George accepting the role of chief archivist, the archives were integrated into the University Library as a department in 2012.



The chief archivist’s office moved to the Central Library. The storerooms were moved to the House of Law and Economics II and SB II in the summer of 2013. The holdings have now grown to 1,200 meters of documents and a large part of the indexing information is available for online research in Archivportal D. Various digitization projects have also been implemented.