Republic of Mainz
| Republic of Mainz / Rhenish-German Free State | ||||||||||
| Client state of France | ||||||||||
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| Capital | Mainz | |||||||||
| Government | Revolutionary republic | |||||||||
| Historical era | French Revolutionary Wars | |||||||||
| • | Occupied by Custine | 21 October 1792 | ||||||||
| • | Independence proclaimed | 18 March 1793 | ||||||||
| • | Delegates sent to Paris | 23 March 1793 | ||||||||
| • | National Convention approved accession to French Republic | 30 March 1793 | ||||||||
| • | Reconquered by Austro-Prussian forces | 22 July 1793 | ||||||||
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| Today part of |
 Germany
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The Republic of Mainz was the first democratic state on the current German territory and was centered in Mainz. A product of the French Revolutionary Wars, it lasted from March to July 1793.
During the War of the First Coalition against France, the Prussian and Austrian troops that had invaded France retreated after the Battle of Valmy, allowing the French revolutionary army to counterattack. The troops of General Custine entered the Palatinate in late September, and occupied Mainz on 21 October 1792. The ruler of Mainz, Elector-Archbishop Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, had fled the city.
On the next day, 20 citizens of Mainz founded a Jacobin club, the Gesellschaft der Freunde der Freiheit und Gleichheit (English: Society of the Friends of Liberty and Equality). Together with their filial clubs founded later in Speyer and Worms, they promoted the Enlightenment and the French revolutionary ideals of liberté, égalité, fraternité in Germany, aiming for a German republic to be established following the French model. Most of the founding members of the Jacobin club were professors and students of the University of Mainz, together with the university librarian, Georg Forster, some merchants and Mainz state officials. For some time the ecclesiastic Friedrich Georg Pape was president of the club and editor of the Mainzer Nationalzeitung (English: Mainz National Newspaper).
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