1. FC Heidenheim 1846 traces its roots to 14 August 1846, when a gymnastics club was established in Heidenheim, a small industrial town in Baden-Württemberg, south-west Germany. Football arrived within the wider association in 1890, and after decades of mergers, splits, and reorganisations typical of German club history, the football section formally became an independent professional entity — 1. FC Heidenheim — on 1 January 2007.
The club's modern rise is one of German football's more remarkable stories. Starting in the fourth tier, they climbed steadily: promotion to the Regionalliga in 2008, then to the 3. Liga in 2009, and a 3. Liga title in 2013–14 that delivered their first taste of second-division football in the 2. Bundesliga. They spent nearly a decade in the second tier, including a narrow miss at promotion in 2019–20 when they were eliminated by Werder Bremen on the away-goals rule in the relegation play-offs.
The defining moment came on the final day of the 2022–23 season. Trailing away to Jahn Regensburg deep into stoppage time, Heidenheim scored twice to win 3–2, claiming the 2. Bundesliga title on goal difference and reaching the Bundesliga for the first time in their history. Their debut top-flight season exceeded all expectations: an eighth-place finish in 2023–24, and a UEFA Conference League berth that brought European football to the Voith-Arena for the first time.
Head coach Frank Schmidt, in post since 2007, is the defining figure of this era — at one point holding the record as the longest-serving manager in German professional football. The club plays at the Voith-Arena, which has grown from a modest 8,000-seat ground to a 15,000-capacity stadium as the team's ambitions have expanded.