[5] Before the arrival of American settlers, the area that today includes Cullman was originally in the territory of the Cherokee Nation.

This trail figured significantly in Cherokee history, and it featured prominently in the American Indian Wars prior to the establishment of the state of Alabama and the relocation of several American Indian tribes, including the Creek people westward along the Trail of Tears.

During the Creek War in 1813, General Andrew Jackson of the U.S. Army dispatched a contingent of troops down the trail, one of which included the frontiersman Davy Crockett.

In 1822, Abraham Stout was given a charter by the Alabama Legislature to open and turnpike a road beginning from Gandy's Cove in Morgan County to the ghost town of Baltimore on the Mulberry Fork near Colony.

The road passed near present-day Vinemont through Cullman, Good Hope, and down the current Interstate 65 corridor to the Mulberry Fork.

During the Civil War, the future location of Cullman was the site of the minor Battle of Day's Gap.

[8] Cullmann had been an advocate of democratic reforms in his native Bavaria, having fought and acquired his honorific title "Colonel" during the Revolutions of 1848–49.

In the years to follow, he would try to re-establish himself in business, but after several setbacks, including a great financial loss in the First Schleswig War, he would remain unsuccessful.

As time went on and Prussia, under King Wilhelm I and his Minister President Otto von Bismarck, began to exert more influence in the German region (eventually unifying Germany under Prussian rule in 1871), Cullmann began to believe that his political ideals were fundamentally incompatible with those of the German Government.

Settling first in London due to fears that he would be forced to join in the ongoing American Civil War, Cullmann eventually came to America in 1865.

He moved to Alabama in 1871 and, in 1873, negotiated an agreement to act as agent for a tract of land 349,000 acres (1,410 km2) in size, owned by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, on which he established a colony for German immigrants.

Over the next 20 years, Cullmann encouraged around 100,000 Germans to immigrate to the United States, with many settling in the Cullman area.

German immigrants also founded St. Bernard's Monastery, on the grounds of which is the Ave Maria Grotto, containing 125 miniature reproductions of some of the most famous religious structures of the world.

'"[15] The need for Black day laborers in Cullman subsequently led to a rise in population of Colony, Alabama, a safe haven for the discriminated.

[17] Cullman gained national attention in early 2008, when a special election was held to fill a vacancy in the Alabama House of Representatives.

[2] New zoning laws and alcohol ordinances have allowed for greater expansion and growth in the downtown Cullman area.

Hitting on April 27, it destroyed many buildings in downtown and in an east-side residential area, but caused no fatalities.

Cullman was ranked among Bloomberg Businessweek's 50 Best Places to Raise Your Kids in 2012[32] based on the city's educational and economic factors, crime level, air quality, amenities, and ethnic diversity.