Treffpunkt Stadtbibliothek": Mainz as the secret cradle of the German language
Who actually decided how we write German today? The answer lies not in Berlin, not in Vienna - but in Mainz. On Wednesday, 20 May 2026, 6.30 pm, Dr. Erwin Kreim will reveal the secret of the sources of our standard language in the Wissenschaftliche Stadtbibliothek (Reading Room, Rheinallee 3B, 55116 Mainz).
His lecture at the “Treffpunkt Stadtbibliothek” event hosted by the Mainz Library Society promises to be a journey of discovery that will reveal new insights even to die-hard Mainz connoisseurs.
Long before Goethe rose to the pantheon of German literature and the Duden dictionary was created, scribes in Mainz laid the foundations for what we know today as High German. In his research, Dr. Erwin Kreim has uncovered a fascinating network: In the early 16th century, the clerks of the Mainz Imperial Chancellery shaped a supraregional written language—and even influenced Martin Luther in the process.
Their documents were saved from destruction during the fighting of 1793, taken to Aschaffenburg, and are now stored in the Vienna State Archives—largely unknown, yet of inestimable value to the history of language. Kreim brings this hidden legacy to light and shows how the Imperial Archchancellery in Mainz, the archives of the Imperial Chamber Court, and, not least, Gutenberg’s invention together laid the foundation upon which the German written language could first emerge. The findings are presented not only visually but also haptically. The AI perspective of the title is meant to be provocative: Many of the sources Kreim has uncovered are still unknown to digital language models—they lie dormant in archives that have hardly been digitized to date. What machines do not (yet) know, Kreim knows.
About the speaker
Dr. Erwin Kreim has worked in the banking sector for over 50 years—and, for just as long, has researched the history of written communication. His collection of letter-writing manuals, comprising some 500 books spanning six centuries, is considered one of the “hidden treasures of the Gutenberg Museum.” More recently, he has devoted himself intensively to Gutenberg research.
Admission is free; donations are welcome.