[edit]
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Mannheim.
Early history[edit]
A brick kiln excavated in 1929 in the Seckenheim district, which operated from 74 AD to the early second century, attests to settlement in Roman times.
The name of the city was first recorded as Mannenheim in a legal transaction in 766, surviving in a twelfth-century copy in the Codex Laureshamensis from Lorsch Abbey. The name is interpreted as "the home of Manno", a short form of a Germanic name such as Hartmann or Hermann. Mannheim remained a village throughout the Middle Ages.
Early Modern Age[edit]
In 1606, Frederick IV, Elector Palatine started building the fortress of Friedrichsburg and the adjacent city centre with its grid of streets and avenues. On 24 January 1607, Frederick IV gave Mannheim the official status of a "city".
Mannheim was mostly levelled during the Thirty Years' War around 1622 by the forces of Johan Tilly. After being rebuilt, it was again severely damaged by the French Army in 1689 during the Nine Years' War (also called “The War of Palatinate Succession” as Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, a younger brother of Louis XIV made a competing claim to the electorate of the Palatinate).
After the rebuilding of Mannheim from 1698 onwards, the capital of the Electorate of the Palatinate was moved from Heidelberg to Mannheim in 1720 when Karl III Philip, Elector Palatine began construction of Mannheim Palace and the Jesuit Church; they were completed in 1760.
18th and 19th centuries[edit]
In 1819, Norwich Duff wrote of Mannheim:
Mannheim is in the Duchy of Baden and situated at the confluence of the Rhine and Neckar over both of which there is a bridge of boats. This is the third town of this name having been twice burnt. The houses are large, and the streets are broad and at right angles to each other, and is one of the most airy clean towns I have seen in Germany. It was formerly fortified, but the fortifications were razed in 1806 and gardens fill their places. There is a large château here belonging to the Grand Duke and a very good garden; part of the château was destroyed when the town was bombarded and has never since been repaired, the other part is occupied by the Grand Duchess, widow of the late Grand Duke who was succeeded by his uncle having left only three daughters. She is the sister of Eugene Beauharnais [sic; in fact, she was his second cousin]. There is a cathedral, a theatre which is considered good, an observatory, a gallery of pictures at the château, and some private collections. About two kilometres (one point two miles) below the town the Russian Army crossed the Rhine in 1813. Population 18,300.
Mannheim in 1758
Historical map of Mannheim in 1880
During the eighteenth century, Mannheim was the home of the "Mannheim School" of classical music composers. Mannheim was said to have one of the best court orchestras in Europe under the leadership of the conductor Carlo Grua. The royal court of the Palatinate left Mannheim in 1778, as Charles Theodore had become Elector of Bavaria and moved to Munich. Two decades later, in 1802, Mannheim was removed from the Palatinate and given to the Grand Duchy of Baden.
The climate crisis of 1816–17 caused famine and the death of many horses in Mannheim. That same year Karl Drais invented the first bicycle.
In 1819, August von Kotzebue was assassinated in Mannheim.
Infrastructure improvements included the establishment of Rhine Harbour in 1828 and the construction of the first Baden railway, which opened from Mannheim to Heidelberg in 1840. Influenced by the economic rise of the middle class, another golden age of Mannheim gradually began. In the March Revolution of 1848, the city was a centre for political and revolutionary activity.
In 1865, Friedrich Engelhorn founded the Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik (Baden Aniline and Soda Factory, BASF) in Mannheim, but the factory was constructed across the Rhine in Ludwigshafen because Mannheim residents feared air pollution from its operations. From this dye factory, BASF has developed into the largest chemical company in the world. After opening a workshop in Mannheim in 1871 and patenting engines from 1878, Karl Benz patented the first motor car in 1886. He was born in Mühlburg (now part of Karlsruhe).
Early 20th century and World War I[edit]
The Schütte-Lanz company, founded by Karl Lanz and Johann Schütte in 1909, built 22 airships. The company's main competitor was the Zeppelin works.
When World War I broke out in 1914, Mannheim's industrial plants played a key role in Germany's war economy. This contributed to the fact that, on 27 May 1915, Ludwigshafen was the world's first civilian settlement behind the battle lines to be bombed from the air. French aircraft attacked the BASF plants, thereby killing twelve people. The precedent was set for this attack by Germany's repeated air raids against British civilian populations throughout southeastern Britain during the first half of 1915.
When Germany lost the war in 1918, according to the peace terms, the left bank of the Rhine was occupied by French troops. The French occupation lasted until 1930, and some of Ludwigshafen's most elegant houses were erected for the officers of the French garrison.
Inter-war period[edit]
After the First World War, the Heinrich Lanz Company built the Bulldog, an advanced tractor, powered by heavy oil. As a result of the invention of the pre-combustion chamber by Prosper L'Orange, Benz & Cie. developed the world's first compact diesel-powered car at its motor works in Mannheim in 1923. In 1922, the Grosskraftwerk Mannheim (Mannheim large power station) was opened. By 1930, the city, along with its sister city of Ludwigshafen, which had developed out of the old Mannheim Rheinschanze, had a population of 385,000.
World War II[edit]
US troops in street fighting in Mannheim, 1945
During World War II, air raids on Mannheim completely destroyed the city centre. Mannheim was heavily damaged during aerial bombing by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Allied bombing raids razed the city centre of Mannheim at night-time area bombing, killing thousands of civilians. In the meantime, 2,262 of Mannheim's Jews were sent to Nazi concentration camps. Some sources state that the first deliberate strategic bombing of the war occurred at Mannheim during a Royal Air Force night raid on 16 December 1940. Today around one third of the city consists of buildings from before 1950.
In late March 1945, the Allied ground advance into Germany reached Mannheim, which was potentially well-defended by German forces. However, the German forces abandoned the city and the U.S. 44th Infantry Division entered unopposed on 29 March 1945. There was later a large American military occupation presence in the Mannheim area with up to 10 barracks. The first one was closed in 2007 and the last in 2013 (see United States military installations below).
1950s to 1980s[edit]
The Wasserturm Garden
After the war, large portions of the city required rebuilding. The Mannheim Palace and the water tower (Wasserturm) were reconstructed, whilst the National Theatre was replaced in a new location. At the old location, there is now a park with a monument to Friedrich Schiller. The housing shortage led to the development of many new residential areas.
In 1964, the City Hospital (Städtisches Krankenhaus) became part of the Heidelberg University for Clinical Medicine in Mannheim. In 1967, the University of Mannheim was established in the city.
In 1975, the Bundesgartenschau (Federal horticulture show) was celebrated in the Luisen and Herzogenried parks. A number of pieces of infrastructure were developed for the show: the telecommunications tower and a second bridge across the Rhine (the Kurt Schumacher Bridge) were built, the pedestrian zone in the city centre was established, the new Rosengarten conference centre was opened and the Aerobus was installed as a temporary transport system.
Mannheim skyline viewed from Heidelberg
A number of major projects were completed in the 1980s and 1990s: a planetarium, an extension to the art gallery, the Reiß Museum, the Stadthaus, new May Market grounds, a synagogue, a mosque, the State Museum for Technology and Work, the Carl-Benz stadium and the Fahrlach tunnel were opened.
Mannheim has lost many industrial jobs where previously the city was economically dominated by manufacturing. The city previously tried to prevent the establishment of service providers by designating some locations as industrial areas. A prime example of the current trend is the construction of the Victoria Tower (Victoria-Turm) in 2001, one of the tallest buildings in the city, on railway land.
Victoria Turm Mannheim at the marshalling yard at night
Post-reunification[edit]
In 2001, the city hospital was officially and legally renamed to the University Hospital Mannheim.
The 400th anniversary of the city was in 2006, since Frederick IV, Elector Palatine laid the foundations of Mannheim citadel on 17 March 1606. Mannheim instead celebrated its 400th anniversary with a series of cultural and other events throughout 2007. In preparation for the anniversary, some urban activities were implemented, beginning in 2000: the building of the SAP Arena with access to the city's new eastern ring road, the rehabilitation of the pedestrian zone in Breite Straße, the arsenal and the palace, the complete transformation of the old fairground, and the new Schafweide tram line. The concept of the anniversary of the city was for a diverse range of events rather than a single central event.
In 2023, Mannheim again hosted the Bundesgartenschau 2023 (Federal Garden Show); after first hosting in 1975.
On 31 May 2024, a mass stabbing took place at a counter-jihad BPE rally in the market square. A police officer was killed and six others, including guest speaker Michael Stürzenberger, were injured. The suspect confessed to having Islamist motivations behind the attack, which was meant to be an assassination attempt on Stürzenberger for his criticism of Islam.
On 3 March 2025, a car was intentionally driven into a crowd at Paradeplatz. Two pedestrians were killed and 14 were injured. The suspect, who had a history of mental health issues, as well as previous convictions for assault and hate speech, refused to give motivations for the attack.
