Tanning After Eyebrows

Rhenish legends: The coat of arms of Mainz

your beginning was the story of mid-10th Century Schöningen in Braunschweiger Land. At that Time the woman gave birth to the local Wagner her elderly husband, a son already, they called Willigis. He too was destined to learn how to be a father the craft of Wagenradbaus to later continue his father's business. The young Willigis was initially very talented and was the pride of the old Wagner. Nevertheless, the father soon noticed that this simple craft to his son seemed no real pleasure to prepare. The mother also felt that the wise son was a higher calling and as the father the happiness of the son's heart was, he took upon himself all the trouble to make Willigis get a different design. He succeeded, finally, at the influential and learned people hold, audition later bishop of Meissen and teacher Otto II and this to plead that he should stand up for Willigis and embrace him. Perhaps out of pity, but also because he saw one in Willigis indeed gifted boy who heard the petition of the people hold the old man and he gave not only the young boy an education, but also brought him even in the context of the imperial court. Soon people wore Holds efforts fruits and Willigis - scholarship and driven by ambition - became magnificent. Even the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Otto I fell on the great talent and the tenacity of the young man, the chaplain and he finally as head of seiner Reichskanzlei machte.
An seine Tage in Schöningen und an seine Herkunft dachte der Handwerkersohn Willigis hier bereits lange nicht mehr. Im Gegensatz zum Kaiser aber waren dessen Kanzleibeamte dem jungen Willigis jedoch weit weniger gewogen und sie waren voller Neid darauf, dass einer, der nicht aus ihren Reihen stammte, eine solche Karriere machte. "Emporkömmling !" nannten sie ihn und machten ihm wo immer es ihnen möglich war das Leben schwer.
Der Spott aber beflügelten Willigis Ehrgeiz nur noch mehr; er wollte besser sein als diese adeligen Herren und tatsächlich wurde er nach nur vier weiteren Jahren unter Otto II. zum Erzbischof von Mainz und zum Reichskanzler ernannt.

All 'these successes, but made Willigis not really happy, he was envied alone against an overwhelming number of people who were hostile to him, because the Mainz patrician the new Archbishop of the rise and they meditated for a way to humiliate him . Finally, they had an idea and yet the same night they put the same into the act. By hired villains they were on all the doors and walls of the episcopal palace to paint car wheels to remember Willigis to its simple origin and to each wheel was therefore written, "! Willigis Willigis Remember where you came from!"

But the shameful Plan did not, because wanted to eliminate as the servants of the archbishop on the following day, the nocturnal graffiti on his own initiative, ordered Willigis to their surprise that work cease immediately. The sight of the wagon wheels had actually reminds him of his humble origins and the fate of his mother and his father had become aware of him again and after such a long time. He made the decision that the images will now warn, so that he never again forget and this was his next arrangement, the wheels symbolically carve in stone - set up in front of the residence, as well as the sign of the wheel in every room of the house and also in his private chambers to paint the wall.
Thus, it was the jealousy of the patrician owe that Willigis walked in the grateful and humble servant of the Church and the State, as he is addressed later in the story. Whether Willigis thanked the patricians of the city for its unwanted service ever, is not recorded, although this would have the anger of men over their failed plan hardly appeased, and so should the Archbishop to honor those two wagon wheels in the city arms have come to Mainz.

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Willigis v. Mainz
Heiliger
+ 23.02.1011

In Wahrheit ist die Herkunft des historischen Willigis nicht genau bekannt und auch, warum er in Bischof Volkhold von Meißen einen so einflussreichen Mentor fand, ist nicht überliefert. Sicher ist aber, das Dieser ihm den Eintritt in die Domschule ermöglichte und Willigis auch durch ihn an den Hof Ottos I. kam, wo er in der Tat sehr rasch aufstieg. 971 wurde er Hofkaplan und Vorsteher der Reichskanzlei; nur vier Jahre später Erzbischof von Mainz und Reichskanzler. Nach dem Tode Ottos II. nahm er dessen Sohn in seine Obhut, wurde sein Lehrer und verwaltete das Reich bis zur Volljährigkeit Ottos III., der dann 996 den Thron bestieg.
Eine gesicherte Erklärung, wie nun die Wagenräder in das Stadtwappen von Mainz kamen, gibt es nicht. Es gibt neben der Sage um den Erzbsichof noch eine archäologische Hypothese, die das Wappenrad in der Nachfolge des Sonnenrads des keltischen Gottes Mogo, dem Namenspatron des römischen Moguntiacum sehen, aus dem sich dann Mainz entwickelt hat. Eine andere Deutung vermutet, dass das Wagenrad aus dem griechischen Christusmonogramm entstanden ist und beruft sich hierbei auf Radmotive in den Münzen des Mainzer Erzstifts.