[2] Barth dates back to the medieval German Ostsiedlung, before which the area was settled by Wends of the Liuticians or Rani tribe.

In the same document, he agreed to remove his burgh, Borgwall or Neue Burg, then on the northwestern edge of the town's projected limits.

[3] After Vitslav's death without an issue in 1325, his principality was inherited by Wartislaw IV of the Duchy of Pomerania, who however had to enforce his claims by two subsequent wars with Mecklenburg.

The wars as well as contemporary and subsequent Black Death epidemics (1349, 1405 and 1451) and floods hindered Barth's growth.

In 1572, Bogislaw XIII rebuilt the ducal court in Renaissance style, and married Clare of Brunswick-Lüneburg who was later buried in Barth.

While the plan eventually failed, Bogislaw's investments led to some slight prosperity which was only disturbed by the Black Death epidemics of 1597 and 1598.

[3] In 1627, during the Thirty Years' War, Albrecht von Wallenstein's imperial army entered Protestant Pomerania and, after they were repelled from Barth, re-took the town and exacted revenge.

Before the Swedish forces entered Barth in 1630, retreating imperial troops led by Maritzen looted the town.

During the Great Northern War, the evicted Polish king Stanislaus Leszczynski was assigned Barth's old ducal court by his friend and ally, Holy Roman Emperor Karl XII, and stayed from August 1710 until March 1711.

A Swedish counterattack was repelled, and Barth was turned into a French garrison until the Swedish-French peace treaty.

[6] With the Fall of the Iron Curtain and German reunification, an extensive renovation of the old town centre of Barth was initiated - mainly due to the urban development promotion programme of Germany.