Note: The Mainz City Hall is currently undergoing renovation. In November 2019, the resident offices moved out.
Colloquially, it is jokingly referred to as the "Fox Den" (in reference to the serving Mayor Jockel Fuchs at the time of its inception) or "Civil Servant Prison": The Mainz City Hall is undoubtedly a characteristic building with its own unique architectural language. Previously, Mainz had been without a city hall for five centuries – until the Mainz City Council commissioned the renowned Danish firm Jacobsen and Weitling to design the new building in 1968. "We believe that we have created a place of high value that will arouse public interest and perhaps even discussion. A debate for and against would already be a positive sign, because a building that is not discussed is usually not worth talking about." - this was the hope and wish of one of the architects of the Mainz City Hall, Otto Weitling, in January 1974.
What was articulated in the construction documentation on the occasion of the opening of the city hall still holds true today.
700 years after the construction of the first Mainz City Hall in the Middle Ages, the Mainz City Council commissioned the renowned Danish firm Jacobsen and Weitling to plan the new building following a Europe-wide competition. Previously, Mainz had been "city hall-less" for 500 years. That was about to change: the construction was to be realized at Halleplatz, today's Jockel-Fuchs-Platz. On July 21, 1972, the then Mayor Jockel Fuchs and the construction workers celebrated the topping-out ceremony. On New Year's Eve 1973, the building was put into operation with a city council meeting.
Already on the next day, the carnival societies stormed the town hall square, and in the following festival week, 50,000 residents of Mainz rushed to their new city hall.
Numerous dignitaries from partner cities, the then Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate, Helmut Kohl, the Mayor of Wiesbaden, Rudi Schmitt, and to top it all off, Federal President Gustav Heinemann graced the new building with their visit. 600 employees moved into their offices. Architect Arne Jacobsen did not live to see this occupation of the building; he had already passed away in 1971. In 2002, on the occasion of his 100th birthday, the city hall received numerous inquiries for loan furniture from its collections for design exhibitions worldwide.
