Nearby are the towns of Goslar to the west, Vienenburg to the north, Braunlage to the south and Ilsenburg and Osterwieck in the east.

Bad Harzburg is rich in natural resources such as gabbro, chalk, gravel, and oolithic iron ore (former Hansa Pit), all of which are or were mined in today's city's area.

It may have stood on the site of a sacred grove dedicated to a Saxon god named Krodo, whose statue Charlemagne had overthrown.

King Conrad I of Germany is believed to have established a college of canons here in 916, in order to strengthen his rule in the Duchy of Saxony under Henry the Fowler.

Archaeological findings of a first, later abandoned, settlement beneath the castle called Schulenrode (Old Saxon for "hidden (cf.

From 1488 on, the Harzburg with its surrounding estates was part of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, though spatially separated from the residence of the prince at Wolfenbüttel by the neighbouring Prince-Bishoprics of Hildesheim and Halberstadt.

The Harzburg Front of a united "national opposition" against the German government of Heinrich Brüning was initiated by Alfred Hugenberg, the national-conservative German National People's Party (DNVP), the leadership of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), Der Stahlhelm first World War ex-servicemens' organisation and the Alldeutscher Verband pressure group and constituted on 11 October 1931.

Rail services are provided at Bad Harzburg station by RegionalExpress and RegionalBahn trains of the Deutsche Bahn running to Hanover, Brunswick, Holzminden and Halle.