About the museum
The Gutenberg Museum is one of the oldest printing museums in the world and is currently undergoing an architectural and conceptual renewal. The interim exhibition "Gutenberg Museum MOVED," which will open at the end of 2024, will present outstanding media history objects from the Gutenberg Museum's collection and link them to current social issues.
The focus is on Johannes Gutenberg, son of Mainz and "Man of the Millennium," who invented printing with movable metal letters more than 550 years ago, triggering a media revolution. In addition to Gutenberg's life, work, and inventions, as well as their reception and consequences, the museum, founded in 1900 by citizens of Mainz, shows elementary aspects of book printing.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is the walk-in treasure chamber with two copies of the world-famous Gutenberg Bible. On the upper floors, both the printing demonstrations on the reconstructed Gutenberg presses and the printing shop as a museum educational project room offer the opportunity to experience the art of printing in a vivid way.
Treasure trove of the history of books, printing and writing
As one of the oldest printing museums in the world, the Gutenberg Museum on Liebfrauenplatz in Mainz invited visitors to take a journey through four millennia of book, printing, and writing culture for several decades. At the beginning of October 2024, the Gutenberg Museum in the "Schellbau," as the exhibition building opened in the 1960s was called, closed to make way for a new building.
After a six-week closure, the interim exhibition "Gutenberg Museum MOVED" opened at the end of November 2024 in the premises of the Natural History Museum. In the elaborately restored rooms of the former Clarissan convent, the Gutenberg Museum is presenting an exhibition that breaks new ground in educational work.
The use of media technology and the curatorial approach of relating historical and current developments in media history make a visit to the exhibition an educational experience. "Gutenberg Museum MOVED" presents moving stories about the moving figure of Gutenberg and his media echo, which still resonates today.
Experience Gutenberg - analog and digital
At the heart of the interim exhibition "Gutenberg Museum MOVED" are two copies of the world-famous 42-line Gutenberg Bible, which can be viewed and compared in the walk-in treasure chamber.
The temporary exhibition also caters to the desire of the younger generation in particular to capture an image of themselves and share it with others. At a selfie station, visitors can take a photo of themselves against the backdrop of a medieval printing workshop and take the snapshot home with them digitally via QR code or printed out at the printing station.
The upper floors are predominantly analog: two Gutenberg workshops vividly demonstrate how printing was done in Gutenberg's time. The print shop, the museum's educational department, also continues to offer a unique project space where visitors can experience printing history firsthand.
World Museum of the Printing Arts
With a collection of several hundred thousand objects, numerous award-winning special exhibitions, and innovative cultural tourism (educational) offerings, the Gutenberg Museum attracts more than 150,000 visitors from 70 countries to Mainz every year.
Gutenberg Museum MOVED brings the world of book, printing, and media history to life for guests from all over the world and strengthens Mainz's reputation as a city of culture, research, and innovation.