Stadthistorisches Museum Mainz

About the museum

Because the city of Mainz did not want to take on sponsorship of a museum of its own devoted to city history, committed citizens founded a friends' association in 1996. In 2000 it opened an initially very small museum in the Haus zum Stein. The city supports the project and in 2003 made part of Building D on the Citadel available, where the museum has been located ever since, right next to the Roman Drusus Stone.

The house is still run by the association and is financed by membership fees, donations and admission fees; volunteers ensure the weekend opening hours. A foundation established in 2013 is meant to take over sponsorship in the long term. A brochure on the museum's history was published in 2025 for its 25th anniversary.

In limited space, the permanent exhibition is divided into four areas: economic and working life in Mainz in the 19th and 20th centuries, with products of well-known Mainz companies and a furnished workers' kitchen; the exhibition "Magenza" on the city's thousand-year Jewish history; a tour through the history of the city from the Stone Age to the postwar reconstruction, set up in 2005; and "Kinderwelten" (children's worlds) with historical toys and a restored house marionette theater from 1925. In addition, there are special exhibitions that change every year, lectures, readings and concerts, as well as an "Object of the Month" from the storage depot that changes monthly.

Highlights

• Location in the Mainz Citadel next to the Roman Drusus Stone
• Exhibition "Magenza" on 1,000 years of Jewish Mainz
• Furnished Mainz workers' kitchen from the first half of the 20th century
• Restored house marionette theater by Hans Kohl and Walter Oberholzer
• Products of Mainz companies from Bembé to Schott

Permanent exhibitions

• Wirtschafts- und Arbeitsleben in Mainz im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert – Products of Mainz companies, from furniture and musical instruments to glass, as well as a furnished workers' kitchen show the economic change and the everyday life of working-class families.
• Magenza – 1000 Jahre jüdisches Mainz – In five sections, the Jewish community is presented from its heyday in the Middle Ages through persecution and the Holocaust to the new beginning after 1945.
• Mainz von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart – A compact, richly illustrated tour leads from the first traces of settlement through the Roman period and the electorate to the reconstruction after 1945.

Founded

2000

Operated by

Förderverein Stadthistorisches Museum Mainz e.V.

Admission & discounts

Free admission with the Mainz-Card and Museums-Card. Mainz school classes free without a tour, €20 with a tour; other school classes €20 without a tour, with a tour by arrangement. Cash only.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible
• Elevator: no information
• Accessible restroom
• Accessible parking
• Service dogs welcome: no information
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

Accessible entrance to the building and accessible exhibition rooms. Wheelchair-accessible restroom in the adjacent building (Citadel, Building C). Accessible parking spaces on Eisgrubweg, about 600 m away.

Kids & families

The "Kinderwelten" exhibition shows historical toys such as dollhouse kitchens, a children's toy shop and a marionette theater. Children under 6 have free admission, family ticket €9.

Getting there & parking

Access by car only via Eisgrubweg and the street "Am 87er Denkmal". The museum is located in Building D, entrance at the Drusus Stone.

Amenities & dining

The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.

Plan your visit