Founding Phase 1946-1973

Following a review of the university records available in 1950 by historian Professor Theodor Schieffer, the establishment of University Archives was initially postponed due to a lack of materials of archival value.

In 1954, an archives commission was established, comprising the rector, two professors with archival expertise, and Georg Wilhelm Sante, the director of the Wiesbaden State Archives. On May 15,1956, the Archives Commission passed a ruling to establish the University Archives and put Sante in charge of the project. However, it was only gradually that the first collections of files were acquired and suitable premises for housing the archives were found. The first continuous study of Mainz university history was carried out in the 1960s by Helmut Mathy (1934 – 2008).

Provisional management of the archives 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 central administration.

Dr. Krüger, from the State Main Archive, took over the management of the archives, working one to two days a week at the University Archives. Under Dr. Krüger, the holdings grew significantly. He was the first to structure the archives’ collection and he created the first inventories.

First full-time archives manager 1981-2012

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

The year 1984 offered the archives the opportunity to host the spring meeting of Section 8 (universities and scientific institutions) of the then German Archivists Association.

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 archives once again hosted a meeting for Professional Group 8, this time on a larger scale, including East German colleagues. In 2012, Dr. Siggemann reached the retirement age and retired from active service.

The archives have been a department of the University Library since 2012.

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

The archives manager’s office moved to the Central Library. The closed stacks rooms 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 linear meters, with much of the cataloging information available for online research via the Archivportal D, and various digitization projects have been implemented.