The community lies 3 km east of the Rhine in the middle of the Hessisches Ried north of Biblis.

Groß-Rohrheim has two Ortsteile, or quarters, split by the railway right-of-way running between Frankfurt and Mannheim, the older, original centre west of the tracks and a new town development on the east side.

Names for the community changed over the centuries from Rohrheim superior to villa Rorheim to Ober Rorheim and then to Groß-Rohrheim, the name it has borne since 1689 (groß means “great” in German).

In the Middle Ages, the Lorsch Abbey was the feudal overlord; later it was the Lords of Bickenbach, the Counts of Erbach and the House of Katzenelnbogen or their successors, the Landgraves of Hesse.

The Thirty Years' War and later, French raids took a heavy toll on the community.