Mannheim's market square in the northern part of Mannheim's city center (so-called "Westliche Unterstadt") is one of the oldest and most frequented squares in the city.
The market square was created soon after the city was founded in 1607 together with the first town hall. Since that time, a food market has been held three days a week until today. After the city was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War and in the Palatinate War of Succession, the location was retained. The construction of a new town hall and the parish church of St. Sebastian as a double building in the years after 1700 symbolizes the change from the Protestant to the Catholic denomination in the Electoral Palatinate under Elector Johann Wilhelm: the Catholic church and state authority resided under one roof. Above the portals is the dedication Iustitiae et Pietati ("To Justice and Piety"). The market square lost its central location in the years that followed due to the city's expansion to the south, its alignment with the castle and the layout of the Paradeplatz, but it remained the center of public and political life. For example, it was also a place of jurisdiction where public executions took place. During the Baden Revolution of 1848/49, popular meetings with more than 6000 participants took place on the square, and in the wake of the November Revolution in 1919 there were riots because of increased prices. In 1933 the National Socialist book burning took place on the square. After the end of the Second World War, tens of thousands of Mannheim residents demonstrated against the consequences of the currency reform, which were initially perceived negatively in the form of price increases.