Bärenbach lies on the Großbach, a short way upstream from where it empties into the river Nahe, and 47.1% of the municipal area is wooded.

The great importance of this mediaeval clearing process lies in its having been the first time that new land for farming was conquered not by the sword, but rather with the axe.

Data given by H. Kaufmann about the Bad Kreuznach district's placenames show that Bärenbach was mentioned in documents as early as 1108 ("Gerardus comes de Berenbach", UB.

In 1146, Raugrave Emicho named "Graf von Nuenburc" ("Count of Naumburg"), thus giving the castle its first documentary mention.

Castle Naumburg stood on a hill near where the Bärenbach (the brook from which the municipality draws its name) empties into the Nahe.

It was among the Raugraves' holdings; this comital house also held further castles and administrative rights on the Alsenz, the Appelbach, the Großbach and the Hunsrück.

After changes in ownership arrangements, the Raugraves transferred the castle in the 14th century to the Counts of Sponheim-Kreuznach, who made it into the administrative seat of a small Amt comprising the courts of Bärenbach, Becherbach and Martin-Weierbach, along with parts of Löllbach and Oberreidenbach.

By 1755, Louis George, Margrave of Baden-Baden had pledged his Naumburg landhold against 2,550 Rhenish guilders to 16 families in Bärenbach.

During the French occupation of the lands on the Rhine's left bank, Bärenbach belonged to the Mairie ("Mayoralty") of Schmidthachenbach, the Canton of Grumbach and the Department of Sarre.

Under the terms laid down by the Congress of Vienna after the Napoleonic Wars had ended, a new political order was established, which at first saw Bärenbach placed under Prussian administration in 1815.

In the time that followed, Becherbach remained a local administrative seat when in 1869 the new Prussian Meisenheim district was newly formed out of the former Oberamt.

[10] The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate's Directory of Cultural Monuments:[11] The following clubs are active in Bärenbach:[13] Running to the village's west is Bundesstraße 41.