In 1968, the year of the 500th anniversary of Johannes Gutenberg's death, Karl Delorme, then head of the social affairs department and himself a trained printer, launched the festival. Since then, the memory of the great inventor Johannes Gutenberg has been celebrated particularly vividly every year during St. John's Night in Mainz.
The city keeps the memory of its greatest son, the inventor of movable type printing, alive with many activities during St. John's Night in Mainz: with the largest antiquarian book market in Germany, exhibitions and demonstrations in the Gutenberg Museum and the printing store, creative activities for children on the topics of printing and calligraphy. And of course with the "Gautschen", the baptism of the printers: since the 16th century, journeymen have been immersed in a large wooden barrel filled with water in a ceremony that symbolically frees them from the sins of their apprenticeship and the lead dust. Today, this tradition is always continued on St. John's Eve Saturday in historical costumes on the stage at Liebfrauenplatz. The apprentices are now mainly media designers who have just completed their training.
The artists' market is also a particular crowd-puller: over a total length of 700 meters, the creative route on the banks of the Rhine and Fischtorplatz leaves nothing to be desired with all kinds of crafts and original items. Traders from all over Germany and abroad offer their fine wares for sale here. Take a look, try them on and take them home!