The turn to professionalism in a sport otherwise fully amateur in Germany was made possible through the support of Hans-Peter Wild,[1] who owns a soft drink manufacturing business.

European Professional Club Rugby announced that Heidelberger would be excluded as they were under the ownership of Wild, who was simultaneously the owner of another Challenge Cup side, Stade Francais.

The club had a golden era in the late 1920s, when it reached the German championship final three years in a row, winning the title in 1927 and 1928.

After a short stint in this league, the team had to return to the 2nd Bundesliga in 2000, where it was to remain for the next couple of seasons.

In 2008-09, the club's performance has much improved and a second place saw the team return to the German finals for the first time in over 20 years.

In the 2012–13 season the club took part in the European Clubs Championship, a new competition, on the strength of its North Sea Cup runners-up finish in the previous year, facing the Croatian champions RK Nada in the semi-finals, which HRK won 43–0.

The club won its fourth consecutive German championship defeating SC Neuenheim 41-10 in the final.

It defeated TV Pforzheim in the final of the German championship after play-off wins over TSV Handschuhsheim and RG Heidelberg.

The regular season 2018-2019 was concluded by clinching the third place and as the only side beating the 2019 national champion SC 1880 Frankfurt in a league game.

In the 2010–12 campaign, Raphael Pyrasch, Pieter Jordaan, Alexander Widiker, Arthur Zeiler, Daniel Armitage, Sean Armstrong and Kehoma Brenner were all new additions to the club's list of German internationals, while Patrick Schliwa, Anjo Buckman, Steffen Liebig and Tim Kasten appeared again.

For the opening match of the 2012–14 edition of the ENC against Ukraine Sean Armstrong, Anjo Buckman, Pieter Jordaan, Alexander Widiker, Arthur Zeiler, Steffen Liebig, Kehoma Brenner and Rafael Pyrasch where once more selected while Benjamin Danso, Raynor Parkinson and Samy Füchsel were new additions to the club's list of German internationals.