Bad Berleburg lies in the northeast of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the middle of the Rothaargebirge, a low mountain range.

The castle passed on 30 March 1258 to Count Siegfried I and the "monastery reeve" ("Klostervogt") Adolf von Grafschaft.

In 1322, this double overlordship in Berleburg was ended by Widekind von Grafschaft when he forwent his rights to the town in Siegfried II's favour.

Until Count Ludwig the Elder's death in 1605, Berleburg was developing itself into a capital and residence town of the County of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, which in the 18th century was a centre in Germany for the Inspiration Movement, which had grown out of radical pietism.

There in 1743 he would print the first German-language Bible in North America with a press and Fraktur type that may come from Berleburg, but this is uncertain.

When the Rothaarbahn railway was built to Berleburg in 1911, it brought with it the onset of industrialization, although it was limited to forest products at first.

In 1971, once the town had been granted state recognition as a Kneipp spa, Berleburg was entitled to use the prefix Bad (lit.

The communities of Hoheleye, Langewiese, Mollseifen and Neuastenberg were assigned to the newly established Hochsauerland district.

Some sources, on the other hand, say that it is a canting symbol ("Bear" is Bär in German, pronounced the same way as the first syllable of Berleburg).

Alertshausen Arfeld Aue Beddelhausen Berghausen Christianseck Diedenshausen Dotzlar Elsoff Girkhausen Hemschlar Raumland Richstein Rinthe Sassenhausen Schüllar Schwarzenau Stünzel Weidenhausen Wemlighausen Wingeshausen