The predecessor of the current town hall was destroyed by French troops in 1689. In 1701 the foundation stone was laid for the new building, which still stands today. The plans for the central building were drawn up by chief engineer Flemal. The architectural sculpture with masks and the electoral coat of arms was created by the sculptor Heinrich Charrasky, a Hungarian who worked in Heidelberg from 1710 to 1720. The rococo grille on the balcony with the initials of Elector Karl Theodor was not added until 1751. The town hall hall was located behind the balcony from 1703 to 1914. A fire in 1908 made reconstruction necessary. The houses that were still standing south of the town hall along the main street at that time were demolished and replaced by the new part of the building. The eastern extension of the town hall was already built in 1886. Another extension on the east side followed in 1961. This also includes the turret with the carillon. From 1720 to 1956, the "Zum Großen Fass" inn stood on this spot. After its completion in 1890, it was a "civic pride", but today only a few people know the city council's meeting room. When visitors enter the room today, they can easily appreciate that the Great Town Hall was a special attraction in the city, which at the time had 30,000 inhabitants. With its historic appearance in the form of the Neo-Renaissance, the hall, magnificently furnished with wood paneling and paintings, is a telling testimony to the representative interior design of the public buildings of its time. At the same time, it documents interesting developments in the history of the city and its architecture in many ways. It was only the sharp increase in administrative activity during the economic boom of the cities after the war of 1870/71 that made the extension of the town hall urgently necessary. The turning point in the building's history was a fire that completely destroyed the neo-renaissance corner building next to the Great Town Hall on the night of Shrove Monday in 1908. After this unplanned "liberation" from uncertainty about the architectural judgment, the damaged building was demolished without further ado. The way was now clear for Kuhn's extension to the town hall in the neo-classical style that still exists today.