By 1111 the Saxon Duke Lothair of Supplinburg, later king of the Holy Roman Empire, erected castrum vorde, the Vörde Castle at an Oste ford, important for the Oxen Way, an ancient trackway connecting Jutland with Westphalia.

[4] Administrator John Frederick extended the fortified castle by a Vorwerk, including stables and the prince-archiepiscopal Chancery (built in 1608), since 1960 housing a museum, called Bachmann-Museum for regional archeology, geology and history since 1985.

After another Danish occupation between 1712 and 1715 during the Great Northern War the Duchy of Bremen was handed over to the House of Hanover, ruling the area until 1866.

On May 21, 1945, shortly after the end of the Second World War, the fleeing senior Nazi Heinrich Himmler was captured at an Allied roadblock in Bremervörde.

It connects various places between Bremervörde and Kiel with relation to the history of ferries and crossing of rivers, like the historic transporter bridges in Osten and Rendsburg.