ment behind the lines to be bombed from the air. French aircraft attacked the BASF plants, thereby killing twelve people and setting a precedent for the years to come.
When Germany lost the war in 1918, the left bank of the Rhine was occupied by French troops, according to the peace terms. The French occupation lasted until 1930, and some of Mannheim'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 the Third Reich, almost 2,000 of Mannheim's Jews were despatched for extermination. Air raids on Mannheim almost completely destroyed the city during the Second World War. Since Mannheim was an important industrial centre for Nazi Germany, Mannheim was heavily damaged during aerial bombing by the R.A.F. and the U.S. Air Force. In addition to bombing the important factories, the R.A.F. razed the city center of Mannheim with nighttime area bombing. Some sources state that the first deliberate "terror bombing" of German civilians by the R.A.F. occurred at Mannheim on December 16, 1940.
The Allied ground advance into Germany reached Mannheim in late March 1945, which was potentially well-defended by German forces. However, these suddenly abandoned the city and the US 44th Infantry Division entered unopposed on 29 March 1945. There has been a large American military presence in the Mannheim area ever since (see United States military installations below).
Rebuilding of the city began
