It is a comparatively young town which arose from fusion of the formerly independent municipalities Altenbauna, Altenritte, Großenritte, Guntershausen, Hertingshausen, Kirchbauna and Rengershausen in 1966.

Baunatal directly borders on the south of Kassel and is located to the west of the valley of the Fulda river.

Baunatal got its name from the Bauna river, which traverses the town from the northwest to the southeast until it flows into the Fulda near Guntershausen.

[3] On 1 July 1966 with incorporation of Großenritte, Baunatal received town privileges by the Government of Hesse.

[6] The town also has its own bus network called StadtBus Baunatal which is operated by the Regionalverkehr Kurhessen GmbH (RKH).

A legend says that a giant threw the menhir from the nearby Hirzstein with intent to destroy the steeple of Kirchbauna.

The premises have a total area of 2,404,737 m2 (25,884,374 sq ft) and are directly connected to the rail network and the motorway A 49.

[4] In June 2015, a robot killed a man at the Volkswagen facility, in what is believed to be a case of human error.