The Coat of Arms of the City of Mainz
Mainz’s Coat of Arms consists of two six-spoke, silver wheels united by a silver cross extending diagonally from the upper left quadrant to the lower right on a solid red field, the lower part of the shield being rounded or spatulate.
Legend
According to folklore, Archbishop Willigis (975 – 1011) was the son of a wheelwright or wagon-maker. Coming from these humble origins, he selected the wheel as his symbol spiting the local nobility who looked down on his background.
A more scientific explanation or archeological hypothesis suggests that the wheel on the City Arms is a logical successor to the Sun Wheel honoring the Celtic divinity Mogo, the patron of Moguntiacum, as Roman Mainz was called.
The Christian interpretation of the wheel evolved from the Greek language’s monogram for Christ (eternity, timelessness,
progress/evolution, world without end, Alpha and Omega.) This would corroborate the use of the wheel motive on the coins minted by the Mainz arch-convent between the 10th and 13th centuries.
History
For roughly 600 years, the wheel served as Mainz’s symbol originally portrayed as a single silver wheel with five to as many as eight spokes on a red field, serving initially as the arms of the Mainz arch-convent and the Electoral state. The addition of the second wheel represents the city of Mainz itself. The two wheels were vertically aligned, joined by a cross until the 14th Century. The double wheel existed until 1792 when the Electoral principality was abolished with the arrival of French revolutionary troops. Later, in 1811, the Napoleonic symbol “N” was installed. The arms went through various forms for the next hundred years until 1915 when Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hessia gave the Arms their final form returning to the version used from the 16th through the 18th centuries.
