Buttenheim is Levi Strauss's birthplace: the future inventor of blue jeans emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1847.

During a river journey from Forchheim to Würzburg in 793, Charlemagne ordered churches to be built in the Regnitz area to convert the Slavs.

It is assumed that one of Charlemagne's 14 "Slavic Churches", which were built about 800 in the Radenzgau (a county roughly corresponding to today's Upper Franconia), stood in Buttenheim.

The black and silver half of the shield is a reduced form of the arms borne by the old Lords of Stiebar, who were resident in Buttenheim.

The Stiebar noble family can be traced back to 1253 and belonged to the former knighthood of the canton of Gebürg, which was under direct Imperial authority, and which stretched among Kronach, Nuremberg, Buttenheim and Kulmbach.

This noble family put many abbesses, Teutonic Knights and capitulars in the High Monasteries of Bamberg and Würzburg.

Under the Stiebars' ownership, the Lower Castle was burnt down several times: in 1492 in "bloody feud between Albrecht Stiebar the Younger and Prince-Bishop Heinrich III of Bamberg", in 1525 by "rebellious people from out of town" and once again in 1561 through a castle servant's carelessness when he went to bed, forgetting to put the light in his room out.

Hans Joachim von Stiebar, who in 1574 was elected to the First Knightly Council (Erster Ritterrat) of the canton of Gebürg for the Bamberg and Forchheim area, thereby enjoying great prestige, repaired the damage.

In 1630, the Stiebars were stripped of their holdings at Imperial behest for having taken part in the Protestant Union's struggles, putting Buttenheim, and thereby the Lower Castle, under Prince Georg Ludwig von Schwarzenberg's ownership.

In 1762, with Imperial Baron Johann Georg Christoph Wilhelm von Stiebar's death, this noble family's main Franconian line died out.

The district evaluation jury came to this conclusion in 1980: The almost fully preserved timber-frame ensemble with its 31 one-floor farmers houses under memorial protection is without peer in Upper Franconia.It goes on to say: The townsfolk's community spirit and readiness to sacrifice were always exemplary for the district.About the landscape, this was stated: Orchards green the place in exemplary fashion; the valley is covered with groves of trees.

The transition to free landscape is fluid.Levi Strauss, the inventor of blue jeans was born in Buttenheim on 26 February 1829 as Löb Strauß.

The Kleines Haus der Kunst ("Little House of Art") shows paintings, graphics, sculpture and photographs by Eastern European artists.

According to official statistics, there were 334 workers on the social welfare contribution rolls working in producing businesses in 1998, and in trade and transport 267.