[4] Manheim was laid out by Henry William Stiegel in 1762 on a land tract in Rapho Township, though it was only incorporated in 1838.

Manheim is in northern Lancaster County, along Pennsylvania Route 72 (Main Street), 11 miles (18 km) northwest of Lancaster, the county seat, and 13 miles (21 km) south of Lebanon.

[5] Chiques Creek, a southwest-flowing tributary of the Susquehanna River, forms the eastern boundary of the borough.

Manheim has a hot-summer humid continental climate (Dfa) and average monthly temperatures range from 30.2 °F in January to 74.9 °F in July.

The Manheim Community Farm Show is held the first week of every October at Memorial Park.

[11] Manheim also holds a monthly First Thursdays event near the square from April through December.

Her I Lift My Lamp is a historical novel about the early settlement of the county, Henry William Stiegel and his glassworks in Manheim, a Mennonite Eby family, and the Ephrata Cloister.

Sarah Franklin Bache, daughter of Benjamin Franklin, moved to a home on the northeast corner of Market Square in Manheim during the British occupation of Philadelphia, during the Revolutionary War.