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Mannheim (; Palatine German: Mannem or Monnem), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the state capital, and Germany's 21st-largest city, with a population of over 315,000. It is located at the border with Rhineland-Palatinate. The city is the cultural and economic centre of the Rhine-Neckar, Germany's seventh-largest metropolitan region, with nearly 2.4 million inhabitants.
Mannheim is located at the confluence of the Upper Rhine and the Neckar in the Kurpfalz (Electoral Palatinate) region of northwestern Baden-Württemberg. The city lies in the Upper Rhine Plain, Germany's warmest region, between the Palatine Forest and the Oden Forest. Mannheim forms a continuous urban zone of around 500,000 inhabitants with Ludwigshafen am Rhein in the Rhineland-Palatinate, while some northern suburbs lie in Hesse. Hamburg is the only other German city with such a presence in two states other than its own.
Unusually for a German city, central Mannheim's streets and avenues are laid out in a grid pattern, leading to its nickname as the Quadratestadt ( Square City) and the tourism slogan " Leben im Quadrat" (" Life in the Square"). At the southern base of this system is Mannheim Palace, one of the largest palace complexes in the world. It was the former home of the Prince-elector of the Electoral Palatinate, and now houses the University of Mannheim, sometimes known as the "Harvard of Germany". The civic symbol of the city is the Mannheim Water Tower, completed in 1886 and rising to above the Art Nouveau area Friedrichsplatz. Held annually, the May Market is the largest regional consumer exhibition of Germany.
Mannheim is well-known for its inventions, including the automobile, the bicycle, and the tractor, leading to a nickname of the "city of inventions". The city is the starting and finishing point of the Bertha Benz Memorial Route, which follows the tracks of the first long-distance automobile trip in history.
A Großstadt (major city with more than 100,000 inhabitants) since 1896, Mannheim is an important industrial and commercial city, a university town, and a major transportation hub between Frankfurt and Stuttgart, including an ICE interchange (the Mannheim Hauptbahnhof), Germany's second-largest marshalling yard (the Mannheim Rangierbahnhof), and Germany's largest inland port (the Mannheim Harbour). The city is home to many factories, offices and headquarters of several major corporations such as Roche, ABB, IBM, Siemens, Unilever and more. Mannheim's SAP Arena is home to German ice hockey record champions Adler Mannheim as well as the popular handball team Rhein-Neckar Löwen. Since 2014, Mannheim has been a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and holds the title of "UNESCO City of Music". In 2020, Mannheim was classified as a global city with 'Sufficiency' status by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC). Mannheim is a smart city; the city's electrical grid is installed with a power-line communication network.
The name of the city was first recorded as Mannenheim in a legal transaction in 766, surviving in a twelfth-century copy in the Lorsch codex from Lorsch Abbey. The name is interpreted as "the home of Manno", a short form of a Germanic name such as Hartmann or Hermann.Sonja Steiner-Welz, 400 Jahre Stadt Mannheim (Dokumente zur Stadtgeschichte). Band 1: bis zur Kaiserzeit, vol. 1, 2004, , p. 41. Mannheim remained a village throughout the Middle Ages.
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.
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 Mannheim 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).
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.
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.Stanton, Shelby, World War II Order of Battle: An Encyclopedic Reference to U.S. Army Ground Forces from Battalion through Division, 1939–1946 (Revised Edition, 2006), Stackpole Books. 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).
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 Luisenpark 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.
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 Technoseum, 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.
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 Islamism 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.
In comparison to other regions of Germany, Mannheim has a higher humidity in summer, causing a higher heat index. Snow is rare, even in the cold months. Precipitation occurs mostly during afternoon thunderstorms during warmer weather (average days with thunderstorms annually is 40–50). The climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "" (Marine West Coast Climate/Oceanic climate), bordering closely on a humid subtropical climate (Cfa), with summer months often averaging above .
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Recently, smaller stages have opened, such as the Oststadt-Theater, the TIG7 (Theater im Quadrat G7), the Theater Oliv, the Freilichtbühne, the Theater31, the Theater ImPuls, the Theater Felina-Areal, the Mannheimer Puppenspiele, the Kleinkunstbühne Klapsmühl', Schatzkistl, and zeitraumexit.
Adler Mannheim (formerly MERC, Mannheimer Eis- und Rollsport-Club) is an ice hockey team that plays in the professional Deutsche Eishockey Liga. They have won the German championship a total of eight times (7 times the Deutsche Eishockey Liga and once the former Bundesliga).
The city is home to the Mannheim Tornados, the oldest operational baseball and softball club in Germany. The Tornados play in the first division of the Baseball Bundesliga and have won the championship 11 times, more than any other club.[1]
In 2003, the American football club Rhein-Neckar Bandits was founded. They play in the first German Football League (also known as GFL1). As of 2018, between 500 and 900 people watch each game.
Rhein-Neckar Löwen are a Team Handball team who play in the professional German Handball League.
The WWE visited Mannheim in 2008 where around 10,000 fans attended the event.
UFC fighter Dennis Siver lives and trains in Mannheim.
The Maimarkt-Turnier Mannheim is an annual international horse show held during the Mannheimer Maimarkt since 1964. Mannheim hosted the European Show Jumping Championships in 1997, and the FEI European Jumping Championships in 2007 14–19 August, in the MVV-riding stadium.
In 2002, Hobby Horse Polo was invented in Mannheim.
Many significant inventions originate from Mannheim:
The university town also houses one of the medical schools of Heidelberg University (at the University Hospital Mannheim), the Hochschule Mannheim, a branch of the Duale Hochschule of the State of Baden-Württemberg and several musical and theatrical academies, including the Pop Academy Mannheim, the Musikhochschule and the Theaterakademie. These institutions draw a large and diverse student body.
Dependents of U.S. military personnel attended Mannheim Elementary School until it closed in June 2012.Casebeer, Elizabeth. " Mannheim Elementary closes doors after 66 years: Teachers, students all attend ceremony to say goodb." U.S. Army. 14 June 2012. Retrieved on 16 November 2015. In the 1980s the school had 2,200 students.Montgomery, Nancy. " Closing of bases in Mannheim ends special relationship between Germans, U.S. troops." Stars and Stripes. 22 May 2011. Retrieved on 16 November 2015.
In 2023, Specht ran in the election for mayor of Mannheim, in which incumbent Peter Kurz (SPD) did not contest the election, and was supported by the CDU Mannheim, the and the FDP Mannheim. In the first round of voting on June 18, 2023, he received 45.64% of the vote. On July 9, 2023, he won the second round of voting with 49.9% of the vote, ahead of SPD candidate Thorsten Riehle (48.7%) and independent candidate Uğur Çakir (1.3%). Due to an objection to the election results, Specht was initially elected as appointed mayor by the city council. The objection was rejected by the on August 2, 2023, making Specht's election valid. He took office on August 4, 2023, making him the first CDU mayor in Mannheim since Josef Braun (1945–1948).
! rowspan=2 colspan=2| Candidate ! rowspan=2| Party ! colspan=2| First round ! colspan=2| Second round |- ! Votes ! % ! Votes ! % |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Christian Specht | align=left| Christian Democratic Union | 34,329 | 45.6 | 35,981 | 49.9 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Thorsten Riehle | align=left| Social Democratic Party | 22,748 | 30.2 | 35,122 | 48.7 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Raymond Fojkar | align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens | 10,379 | 13.8 | align=center colspan=2| Withdrew |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Thomas Bischoff | align=left| Die PARTEI | 2,327 | 3.3 | align=center colspan=2| Withdrew |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| David Frey | align=left| Independent | 1,081 | 1.4 | align=center colspan=2| Withdrew |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Tanja Krone | align=left| Independent | 903 | 1.2 | align=center colspan=2| Withdrew |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Uğur Çakir | align=left| Independent | 638 | 0.85 | 947 | 1.3 |- | colspan=3 align=left| Others | 41 | 0.1 | 70 | 0.1 |- ! colspan=3| Valid votes ! 75,222 ! 99.4 ! 72,120 ! 99.4 |- ! colspan=3| Invalid votes ! 467 ! 0.6 ! 415 ! 0.6 |- ! colspan=3| Total ! 75,689 ! 100.0 ! 72,535 ! 100.0 |- ! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout ! 234,942 ! 32.2 ! 234,861 ! 30.9 |- | colspan=7| Source: City of Mannheim |}
The city leaders since 1810 are:
The most recent city council election was held on 9 June 2024, and the results were as follows:
! colspan=2| Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 1,110,883 | 21.6 | 2.5 | 10 | 1 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | 1,035,384 | 20.1 | 4.3 | 9 | 3 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 952,919 | 18.5 | 2.7 | 9 | 1 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Alternative for Germany (AfD) | 731,679 | 14.2 | 5.0 | 7 | 3 |- | | align=left| Free Voters/Mannheimer List (ML) | 346,759 | 6.7 | 0.7 | 3 | 1 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 276,672 | 5.4 | 0.7 | 3 | 0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| The Left (Die Linke) | 254,373 | 4.9 | 1.1 | 2 | 1 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Animal Protection Party (Tierschutz) | 112,496 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 1 | 0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Die PARTEI (PARTEI) | 108,638 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 1 | 0 |- | | align=left| Middle-Class for Mannheim (MfM) | 76,555 | 1.5 | 0.2 | 1 | 0 |- | | align=left| The Mannheimers | 64,393 | 1.3 | New | 1 | New |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Klimaliste (Klima) | 59,228 | 1.2 | New | 1 | New |- | | align=left| Protect the Cars | 12,632 | 0.2 | New | 0 | New |- ! colspan=2| Valid votes ! 5,142,611 ! 100.0 ! ! ! |- ! colspan=2| Invalid ballots ! 2,479 ! 2.1 ! ! ! |- ! colspan=2| Total ballots ! 120,729 ! 100.0 ! ! 48 ! ±0 |- ! colspan=2| Electorate/voter turnout ! 238,394 ! 51.5 ! 1.7 ! ! |- | colspan=7| Source: City of Mannheim |}
The following locations were part of the "U.S. Army Garrison Heidelberg" but were within the area of the city of Mannheim until they were vacated in 2010 and 2011:
All personnel of the U.S. Army military community left Mannheim by 2015, some of them moving to Wiesbaden. With the exception of four barracks, all other barracks formerly occupied by the U.S. military had been returned to the German state for conversion to civilian use in 2011.
In the 2019 edition of the , the independent city of Mannheim ranked 35nd out of 401 counties and independent cities in Germany, making it one of the places with "high future opportunities".
Mannheim is among the most attractive business locations in Germany thanks to its competitive business environment and growth opportunities and is considered the economic centre of the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region, which is one of Germany's most important business locations.
The New Economy Magazine elected Mannheim under the 20 cities that best represent the world of tomorrow, emphasizing Mannheim's positive economic and innovative environment.
The Unemployment of Mannheim is 7.2% as of 2020.
The successor to the Karl Benz automobile manufacturing companies begun in Mannheim, Daimler AG, has had a large presence in Mannheim. Today, diesel engines and buses are assembled there. The Swiss Hoffmann–La Roche diagnostic group (formerly known as Boehringer Mannheim) has its division headquarters in Mannheim. Additionally, the city hosts large factories, headquarters and/or offices of ABB, IBM, Alstom, BASF, Bilfinger Berger, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever, Essity, Phoenix Group, Bombardier Inc, Pepperl+Fuchs, Caterpillar Inc, Fuchs Petrolub, John Deere, Siemens, SCA, Südzucker, and other companies. The University Hospital Mannheim provides health care to the inhabitants of Mannheim and the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region.
With a market value of €4.5 billion for its DAX, TecDAX and MDAX companies, Mannheim ranks 22nd on the list of German cities.
MVV Energie based in Mannheim is the largest municipal energy supplier in Germany.
The RheinNeckar S-Bahn, established in 2003, connects most of the Rhine-Neckar area, including lines into the Palatinate, Odenwald and southern Hesse. All S-Bahn lines run through Mannheim Hauptbahnhof except S5. Other S-Bahn stations are Mannheim-Rangierbahnhof, Mannheim-Seckenheim, and Mannheim-Friedrichsfeld-Süd.
The integrated Mannheim/Ludwigshafen tramway network also extends to Heidelberg. It is operated by RNV, a company that is owned by these three cities and some further municipalities in the Palatinate. RNV is the result of a merger on 1 October 2009 between the region's five former municipal transportation companies. Interurban trams are operated by RNV on a triangular route between Mannheim, Heidelberg, and Weinheim which was originally established by the Upper Rhine Railway Company ( Oberrheinische Eisenbahn, OEG), and the company also operates interurban trams between Bad Dürkheim, Ludwigshafen, and Mannheim. In the 1970s a proposal to build a U-Bahn out of the Mannheim and Ludwigshafen tramways was begun, but only small sections were built due to lack of funds. The only underground station in Mannheim is the Haltestelle Dalbergstraße and U-Bahn planning has now ceased. All public transport is offered at uniform prices set by the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (Rhine-Neckar Transport Union, VRN).
The codes are laid out in a systematic pattern. The historical Breite Straße passes through the centre of the grid system from north to south and divides the centre into east and west. Rows A–K are found on the west side and L–U on the east, with letters progressing alphabetically going northwards. Intersecting roads divide rows into blocks numbered from 1 to 7 based on the distance from Breite Straße. Thus, C3 is between C2 and C4 when moving west and B3 and D3 when moving north. Further, a number is given to each building: C3, 17 is block C3, building 17. House numbers begin on the south corner nearest Breite Straße and go counterclockwise for A–K and clockwise for L–U.
This system causes major issues for most mapping software as each apparent street name references the four pieces of road encompassing a block. A variety of fixes have been tried, none with a high level of success. Attempts to fix the issue by giving the roads false names within the database have often failed to give accurate results, but such can still be seen on some platforms like Google Maps. Finding an address in the area thus generally requires resorting to asking directions or using one of the many posted public maps.
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