Mannheim (German pronunciation: [ˈmanhaɪm] ; Palatine German: Mannem or Monnem), officially the University City of Mannheim (German: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the state capital, and Germany's 21st-largest city, with a population of around 317,000. 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.

Surrounded by a ring of avenues, central Mannheim's streets and avenues are laid out in a grid pattern unusual for German cities, leading to its nickname Quadratestadt (Square City) and tourism slogan "Leben im Quadrat" ("Life in the Square"). At the southern base of that 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, which repeatedly receives top marks in business administration and is sometimes known as the "Harvard of Germany". The Mannheim May Market is the largest regional consumer exhibition of Germany. The civic symbol of Mannheim is the Romanesque Mannheim Water Tower, completed in 1886 and rising to 60 metres (200 feet) above the highest point of the art nouveau area Friedrichsplatz. Mannheim is well-known for its inventions, including the automobile, the bicycle, and the tractor, which is why the city is often called 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 now 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.

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 mere village throughout the Middle Ages.

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 status of a "city", whether it really was one by then or not.

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.

After the rebuilding of Mannheim that began in 1698, 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.

In 1819, Norwich Duff wrote of Mannheim:

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.

In 1819, August von Kotzebue was assassinated in Mannheim.

The climate crisis of 1816–17 caused famine and the death of many horses in Mannheim. That year Karl Drais invented the first bicycle.

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).

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.

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.

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 shut down in 2007 and the last was closed in 2013 (see United States military installations below).

Rebuilding of the city began industriously. Mannheim Palace and the water tower (Wasserturm) eventually were rebuilt and the National Theatre was replaced by a new building at a new location. At the old location, there is a monument to Friedrich Schiller and the Zum Zwischen-Akt pub. 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 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 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 new Reiß Museum, Stadthaus, a new May Market ground, synagogue, mosque, State Museum for Technology and Work, Carl-Benz stadium and the Fahrlach tunnel were opened.

Mannheim has lost many industrial jobs, although in the recent past, the city was economically dominated by manufacturing. The city tried in the past 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.

Mannheim celebrated its 400th anniversary with a series of cultural and other events throughout 2007. The 400th anniversary proper was in 2006, since Frederick IV, Elector Palatine laid the foundations of Mannheim citadel on 17 March 1606. 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 is aimed at a diverse range of events without a dominant central event. In 2001, the City hospital was officially and legally awarded with the title University Hospital Mannheim. In 2023, Mannheim hosted the Bundesgartenschau 2023 (National Garden Show); the second time after 1975.

Mannheim is located in Germany's warmest summer region, the "Rhine shift". In summer, temperatures sometimes rise up to 35 °C (95 °F) and higher. The highest recorded temperature was 39.8 °C (104 °F) on 7 August 2015. The daily lows during heat waves can be very high for the latitude (around 25 °C / 77 °F). In September 2016, the average temperature in Mannheim was 18.6 °C, highest in Baden-Württemberg.

In comparison to other regions of Germany, Mannheim has a higher humidity in summer which causes a higher heat index. Snow is rare, even in the cold months. Precipitation occurs mostly during afternoon thunderstorms during the warmer period (average days of thunderstorms in a year 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 "Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate/Oceanic climate), bordering closely on a humid subtropical climate (Cfa), with summer months often averaging above 21 degrees (71 F).

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1450	570	—
1663	3,000	+426.3%
1729	15,760	+425.3%
1777	25,353	+60.9%
1802	18,818	−25.8%
1852	24,316	+29.2%
1871	39,606	+62.9%
1890	79,058	+99.6%
1895	97,780	+23.7%
1900	141,131	+44.3%
1919	229,576	+62.7%
1925	247,486	+7.8%
1933	275,162	+11.2%
1939	284,957	+3.6%
1945	186,310	−34.6%
1950	245,634	+31.8%
1956	287,210	+16.9%
1961	313,890	+9.3%
1966	329,301	+4.9%
1971	332,378	+0.9%
1976	309,059	−7.0%
1981	304,219	−1.6%
1986	294,648	−3.1%
1990	310,411	+5.3%
2001	308,385	−0.7%
2011	290,117	−5.9%
2022	313,693	+8.1%
Population size may be affected by changes in administrative divisions.

Mannheim, population 315,000, is the 2nd largest city in Baden-Württemberg. Its location near the Rhine and Neckar rivers spurred Mannheim's industrialization and transition into a major city in the early 19th century. The city was heavily damaged during WWII but soon regained prominence as an industrial centre, causing rapid population growth in the 1950s. Many motor, electronic and power plant companies came to Mannheim and other cities in the Rhine-Neckar Region, including Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg, which lies just kilometres up the Neckar. The population of Mannheim started to decline in the 1980s but began to rebound in the 2010s, partially due to its large university population.

The following list shows the most significant groups of foreigners in the city of Mannheim by nationalities. In total 44,7% of all Mannheim inhabitants are from foreign descent. The Neckarstadt-West district has the biggest foreign population with 68,9%, while the Wallstadt district has the smallest one with 23,1%. A large part of the immigrants are from the Balkans and European countries.

Rank	Nationality	Population (31 December 2022)
1	Turkey	15,779 (5.12%)
2	Italy	8,165 (2.65%)
3	Bulgaria	6,997 (2.27%)
4	Poland	6,595 (2.14%)
5	Romania	5,663 (1.83%)
6	Croatia	4,565 (1.48%)
7	Ukraine	4,207 (1.32%)
8	Greece	3,341 (1.08%)
9	Spain	1,754 (0.56%)
10	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1,680 (0.54%)
11	Syria	1,642 (0.53%)
12	India	1,541 (0.5%)
13	Hungary	1,341 (0.43%)
14	France	1,266 (0.41%)
15	Kosovo	1,164 (0.37%)

The distribution of Mannheim's population by religious affiliation (as of December 31, 2020) is Roman Catholic 25.4%, Protestant 20.0%, and other/none 54.6%.

The National Theatre Mannheim was founded in 1779 and is the oldest "Stage" in Germany. In 1782 the premiere of Die Räuber, written by Friedrich Schiller, was shown.

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.

There are two nationally renowned football clubs in Mannheim, SV Waldhof Mannheim, who currently are playing in the third tier 3. Liga, but who have played in the top tier, the Bundesliga; and VfR Mannheim, winner of the German championship in 1949, now playing in the sixth tier Verbandsliga Baden.

The Adler Mannheim (formerly MERC, Mannheimer Eis- und Rollsport-Club) is an ice hockey team playing in the professional Deutsche Eishockey Liga, having won the German championship a total of eight times (7 times Deutsche Eishockey Liga and one time the former highest German ice hockey league known as 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.

In 2003, the American football club Mannheim Bandits [de] was founded. The Mannheim Bandits are playing in the first German Football League which is called GFL1. As of 2018, between 500 and 900 people watch each game.

Rhein-Neckar Löwen are a handball team playing in the professional German Handball League.

The WWE visited Mannheim in 2008. Around 10,000 fans attended the event.

UFC fighter Dennis Siver lives and trains in Mannheim.

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, evoking the classical rivalry towards "polite society" in Heidelberg.

The Maimarkt-Turnier Mannheim is an annual international horse show held during the Mannheimer Maimarkt since 1964.

According to Forbes magazine, Mannheim is known for its exceptional inventive power and was ranked 11th among the Top 15 of the most inventive cities worldwide.

Many significant inventions were made in Mannheim:

• Karl Drais built the first two-wheeled draisine in 1817.
• Karl Benz drove the first automobile on the streets of Mannheim in 1886. At his workshop in Mannheim, he produced a lightweight three-wheeled vehicle powered by a single cylinder petrol/gasoline-fueled engine, first shown in public during 1886. This powered tricycle subsequently came to be widely regarded as the first automobile/motor car powered by an internal combustion engine. Karl's wife Bertha Benz undertook the world's first road trip by automobile from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back, about 65 miles then, on modern roads about 55 miles, in August 1888.
• The Lanz Bulldog, a popular tractor with a rugged, simple Diesel engine was introduced in 1921.
• Karl Benz developed the world's first compact diesel-powered car at the Benz & Cie. motor works in Mannheim in 1923.
• Julius Hatry built the world's first rocket plane in 1929.
• Dario Fontanella, an Italian guest worker, invented the first Spaghettieis (spaghetti ice cream) in 1969.

• 
  The world's first bicycle, built in Mannheim by Karl Freiherr von Drais in 1817
• 
  The world's first motorcar, built in Mannheim by Karl Benz in 1885
• 
  Official sign of Bertha Benz Memorial Route, commemorating the world's first long-distance journey by automobile from Mannheim to Pforzheim in 1888 104 km (65 mi)

The University of Mannheim is one of Germany's younger universities. Although founded in 1967, it has its origins in the Palatine Academy of Sciences, established in 1763, and the former Handelshochschule (Commercial College), founded in 1907. Situated in Mannheim Palace, it is Germany's leading university in the fields of business and economics and attracts students from around the world. Described by Die Zeit as the 'Harvard of Germany', it is seen as the training grounds of German business leaders. More than 12,000 students were enrolled in the 2013/14 semester.

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. In the 1980s the school had 2,200 students.

The mayor is the head of the city council and chairman of the council, being selected by direct suffrage for a term of eight years. The current mayor is Christian Specht [de] from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

In 2023, Specht ran in the election for mayor of Mannheim, in which incumbent Peter Kurz (SPD) did not run again, and was supported by the CDU Mannheim, the Mannheimer Liste [de] 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 Karlsruhe Regional Council [de] 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).

Candidate		Party	First round		Second round
			Votes	%	Votes	%
	Christian Specht	Christian Democratic Union	34,329	45.6	35,981	49.9
	Thorsten Riehle	Social Democratic Party	22,748	30.2	35,122	48.7
	Raymond Fojkar	Alliance 90/The Greens	10,379	13.8	Withdrew
	Thomas Bischoff	Die PARTEI	2,327	3.3	Withdrew
	David Frey	Independent	1,081	1.4	Withdrew
	Tanja Krone	Independent	903	1.2	Withdrew
	Uğur Çakir	Independent	638	0.85	947	1.3
Others			41	0.1	70	0.1
Valid votes			75,222	99.4	72,120	99.4
Invalid votes			467	0.6	415	0.6
Total			75,689	100.0	72,535	100.0
Electorate/voter turnout			234,942	32.2	234,861	30.9
Source: City of Mannheim

The city leaders since 1810 are:

The council has 48 seats and is elected by direct suffrage for five years. In the local elections in Baden-Württemberg, voters are allowed to take advantage of cumulative voting and vote splitting. Since the Second World War the SPD, except in the elections of 1999, 2004, and 2024, has received more votes than the CDU. In the 2019 election, the Greens received the most votes for the first time.

The most recent city council election was held on 9 June 2024, and the results were as follows:

Party		Votes	%	+/-	Seats	+/-
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	1,110,883	21.6	2.5	10	1
	Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)	1,035,384	20.1	4.3	9	3
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	952,919	18.5	2.7	9	1
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	731,679	14.2	5.0	7	3
	Free Voters/Mannheimer List (ML)	346,759	6.7	0.7	3	1
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	276,672	5.4	0.7	3	0
	The Left (Die Linke)	254,373	4.9	1.1	2	1
	Animal Protection Party (Tierschutz)	112,496	2.2	1.1	1	0
	Die PARTEI (PARTEI)	108,638	2.1	0.9	1	0
	Middle-Class for Mannheim (MfM)	76,555	1.5	0.2	1	0
	The Mannheimers	64,393	1.3	New	1	New
	Climate List Baden-Württemberg (Klima)	59,228	1.2	New	1	New
	Protect the Cars	12,632	0.2	New	0	New
Valid votes		5,142,611	100.0
Invalid ballots		2,479	2.1
Total ballots		120,729	100.0		48	±0
Electorate/voter turnout		238,394	51.5	1.7
Source: City of Mannheim

A number of U.S. Army Europe installations were located in and near Mannheim during the Cold War. The following locations provided services to and housed the "U.S. Army Garrison Mannheim" and other units of the U.S. Army. The U.S. Army Garrison Mannheim was formally deactivated on 31 May 2011.

• Coleman Barracks and Coleman Army Airfield (Mannheim-Sandhofen): the headquarters of the American Forces Network-Europe, and Also, the location of the United States Army Corrections Facility-Europe.
• Funari Barracks (Mannheim-Käfertal), vacated in 2014.
• Spinelli Barracks (Mannheim-Feudenheim), vacated in 2015, the home of the Army's 28th Transportation Battalion.
• Sullivan Barracks (Mannheim-Käfertal): formerly the headquarters of the U.S. Army's 7th Signal Brigade and the 529th Military Police Honor Guard Company's 2nd Platoon; vacated in 2014.
• Taylor Barracks (Mannheim-Vogelstang): formerly the headquarters of the U.S. Army's 2nd Signal Brigade; vacated in 2011.
• Turley Barracks (Mannheim-Käfertal): in the early 1990s was home to the 181st Transportation Bn, with companies of 40th, 41st, 51st, 590th, TTP, and HHC transportation companies and also the headquarters of the NATO ACE Mobile Force (Land) (AMFL).
• The Benjamin Franklin Village (Mannheim-Käfertal), housing. Also, it was the home of the Mannheim American High School and the Middle School, which closed on 9 June 2011. The last soldier and his family moved out in 2012.

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:

• Friedrichsfeld Service Center (Mannheim-Friedrichsfeld)
• Hammonds Barracks (formerly Loretto Kaserne) (Mannheim-Seckenheim)
• Stem Kaserne (Mannheim-Seckenheim)

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.

• Fernmeldeturm Mannheim – 217.8-metre-high telecommunication tower, landmark of Mannheim
• Synagoge (Mannheim) [de] – post World War II synagogue
• Yavuz Sultan Selim Mosque
• Luisenpark – named one of the most beautiful parks in Europe with around 1.2 million visitors annually
• Mannheim Palace (Mannheimer Schloss) – the city castle, main building of the University of Mannheim and second-largest palace complex in Baroque style after Versailles
• Wasserturm – the town's landmark water tower
• Jesuit Church
• SAP Arena – multifunctional indoor arena, home of Mannheim's ice-hockey team "Die Adler" ("The Eagles")
• Breite Strasse, Kunststrasse, and Kapuzinerplanken – Mannheim's main shopping destinations
• International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg
• Kunsthalle Mannheim – museum of modern and contemporary art
• Technoseum – technology museum
• Multihalle – multi-purpose hall in Mannheim's Herzogenriedpark, the world's largest self-supporting wooden lattice-shell construction
• Wildpark and Waldvogelpark am Karlstern
• The city centre – designed in squares (Quadratestadt)
• Reißinsel – a natural area that an honorary citizen of Mannheim, Carl Reiß, bequeathed to the residents of Mannheim
• Reiß-Engelhorn-Museen – museum with four exhibition halls presenting exhibits in archaeology, world cultures, history of art and culture, photography, and history of theater and music
• Maimarkt – largest regional trade fair in Germany
• Marktplatz (Market square) – hosts a farmers' market every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Fresh fruit, vegetables, and flowers are sold.
• Mannheimer Mess [de] (Mannheim Fair) – twice a year (spring & autumn), a big fair that takes place on Neuer Messplatz-square

With a gross domestic product (GDP) of €20.921 billion, Mannheim ranks 17th on the list of German cities by GDP as of 2018.

In the 2019 edition of the Zukunftsatlas [de], 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 rate 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 also hosts large factories, headquarters and/or offices of ABB, IBM, Alstom, BASF (Ludwigshafen), Bilfinger Berger, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever, Essity, Phoenix Group, Bombardier, Pepperl+Fuchs, Caterpillar, 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 €4.5 billion, Mannheim ranks 22nd on the list of cities by market value of its DAX, TecDAX and MDAX companies.

MVV Energie based in Mannheim is the largest municipal energy supplier in Germany.

In addition to the only local daily newspaper Mannheimer Morgen [de], the Ludwigshafen newspaper Die Rheinpfalz, the Heidelberg newspaper Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung [de] and the Bild Rhein-Neckar offer a local section for Mannheim. In addition, the weekly paper Wochenblatt Mannheim with its official gazette is published. The Kommunal-Info Mannheim is published fortnightly. Free district newspapers are distributed in almost all parts of the city.

The Mannheim/Ludwigshafen area is surrounded by a ring of motorways connecting it to Frankfurt in the north, Karlsruhe in the south, Saarbrücken in the west and Nuremberg in the east.

Mannheim Hauptbahnhof (central station) is at the end of the Mannheim-Stuttgart high-speed rail line and is the most important railway junction in southwestern Germany. It is served by ICE high-speed train system with connections to Frankfurt am Main–Berlin, Karlsruhe–Basel, and Stuttgart–Munich. A new high speed line to Frankfurt also is planned to relieve the existing Mannheim–Frankfurt railway.

Mannheim Harbour is the second-largest river port in Germany and has a size of 1131 hectares. In 2016, 6.9 million tons of goods were handled on the water side. Around 500 companies, with about 20,000 employees, are in the Mannheim Harbour.

Although Frankfurt International Airport is only 65 km (40 mi) to the north, at various times over the years there were daily passenger flights from Mannheim City Airport (IATA code MHG) to London, Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Saarbrücken. Currently, commercial passenger flights serve Sylt.

Local public transport in Mannheim includes the RheinNeckar S-Bahn, eleven tram lines, and numerous bus lines operated by Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr (Rhine-Neckar transport) (RNV).

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 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge integrated Mannheim/Ludwigshafen tramway network also extends to Heidelberg. It is operated by RNV, a company that is wholly owned by the three cities mentioned and a couple of 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 that 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. U-Bahn planning now has stopped. All public transport is offered at uniform prices set by the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (Rhine-Neckar Transport Union, VRN).

The city centre uses an addressing system that is unique within Germany. Within a ring of avenues surrounding the city centre, there are squares that are labeled with letters and numbers instead of street names. The practice dates back centuries and is a result of the original use of the city centre as a fort, with the fort's internal system being retained when the streets became public.

The codes are laid out in a progressive pattern. A street named Breite Straße goes through the middle of the blocks from south to north, with streets A-K on the west side of the street and L-U on the east. Intersecting streets divide these lettered streets into blocks from 1 to at most 7 based on distance from Breite Straße. Thus, C3 is between C2 and C4 in one direction and B3 and D3 in the other. 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.

Those not used to the system will often become lost. It also causes major issues with most mapping software, as the databases that they use are based on the standard street-number system, and so the software cannot accommodate a completely different system for a small area. A variety of fixes have been tried, none with a high level of success. In particular, the systems have issues because an address on a block can be on any of up to four roads and so attempts to fix the issue by giving the roads false names within the database have often failed to give accurate addressing, 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.

Mannheim is twinned with:

• Wiederkehr, Gustav: Mannheim in Sage und Geschichte, H. Haas'schen Buchdruckerei, 1907, (Festgabe zur Feier des dreihundertjährigen Bestehens der Stadt).
• David, Manfred: Mannheimer Stadtkunde. Edition Quadrat, Mannheim 1982, ISBN 3-87804-125-X.
• Staatl. Archivverwaltung Baden-Württemberg in Verbindung mit d. Städten u. d. Landkreisen Heidelberg u. Mannheim (Hrsg.): Die Stadt- und die Landkreise Heidelberg und Mannheim: Amtliche Kreisbeschreibung. Band 1: Allgemeiner Teil. Karlsruhe 1966, DNB 458203858. Band 3: Die Stadt Mannheim und die Gemeinden des Landkreises Mannheim. Karlsruhe 1970, DNB 366145509.
• Landesarchivdirektion Baden-Württemberg (Hrsg.): Das Land Baden-Württemberg – Amtliche Beschreibung nach Kreisen und Gemeinden. Band V.
• Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-17-002542-2.
• Huth, Hans: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Stadtkreises Mannheim. München 1982, ISBN 3-422-00556-0.
• Oesterreich, Carmen And Volker (Hrsg.): Mannheim, wo es am schönsten ist – 55 Lieblingsplätze. Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-936962-43-7.
• Schenk, Andreas: Mannheim und seine Bauten 1907–2007. Hrsg. v. Stadtarchiv Mannheim und Mannheimer Architektur- und Bauarchiv e. V. 5 Bde. Edition Quadrat, Mannheim 2000–2007, ISBN 3-923003-83-8.
• Walz, Guido (Red.): Der Brockhaus Mannheim. 400 Jahre Quadratestadt – Das Lexikon. Bibliographisches Institut & F. A. Brockhaus, Mannheim 2006, ISBN 3-7653-0181-7.
• Naturführer Mannheim. Entdeckungen im Quadrat. Hrsg. von der Stadt Mannheim und der Bezirksstelle für Naturschutz und Landschaftspflege Karlsruhe. Verlag Regionalkultur, Ubstadt-Weiher 2000, ISBN 3-89735-132-3.
• Ellrich, Hartmut: Mannheim. Sutton, Erfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-86680-148-6.
• Nieß, Ulrich and Caroli, Michael (Hrsg.): Geschichte der Stadt Mannheim. Verlag Regionalkultur, Ubstadt-Weiher, Band 1: 2007, ISBN 978-3-89735-470-8. Band 2: 2007, ISBN 978-3-89735-471-5. Band 3: 2009, ISBN 978-3-89735-472-2.
• Mannheimer Altertumsverein/Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen: Mannheim vor der Stadtgründung – Teile I und II. Hrsg. Hansjörg Probst, 4 Bände. Mannheim 2007/08, ISBN 978-3-7917-2074-6.
• Vetter, Roland "Kein Stein soll auf dem andern bleiben" Mannheims Untergang während des Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieges im Spiegel französischer Kriegsberichte ISBN 3-89735-204-4.

• Official website
• Official tourism site
• Mannheim travel guide from Wikivoyage