What some people might not expect: our building not only houses old documents and files that are difficult to decipher. Some sources on the city's history can be heard quite easily. We also preserve recordings of 566 city council meetings from 60 years, which were recorded on audio tapes or video cassettes.

In a project carried out in the summer of 2024, 18 audio tapes and 1 video cassette from the years 1959 to 2008 were painstakingly digitized in order to preserve them for the long term and make them more accessible. Sessions dealing with special events in Mainz's city history were selected, such as the election of Jockel Fuchs as mayor on April 8, 1965, or the inauguration of the town hall on December 31, 1974.

One difficulty with the project was, of course, filtering out the most important sessions from the incredible amount of existing recordings. In addition, the right digitization format had to be chosen, as the files should be usable for as long as possible. At the same time, the amount of data is considerable, and the storage space required must also be taken into account.

In cooperation with the Ludwigsburg-based company Artus, we are now able to make these digitized documents available to anyone interested in history. The digitized documents are also indexed according to the agenda items with timestamps. You can now experience firsthand how decisions relevant to the city's history were made in the city council and follow the discussions. We look forward to your visit!