The town is the historic centre of the lower Murg Valley and forms a central place of mid-size with Gaggenau.

[3] Gernsbach is located in the northern part of the Black Forest on both banks of the river Murg at 150 to 988 meters above the sea level.

[4] The core city is divided into “to the right of the Murg” (including: Kelterberg, Entensee, Kolonie and Nord) and “to the left of the Murg” (including: Klingele, Waldbach, Faltergass, Heppeler, Walheimer Hof, Stadtbuckel, Siedlung, Hahnbachweg, Panoramaweg and Weinau) In the 20th century following townships were suburbanized: After the redivision of local government in the 1970s followed.

At the beginning of the 12th century the Counts of Eberstein bought the “predium” Rotenfels thus allowing the initial settlement of the lower Murg valley.

Gernsbach (also called “Hof” – ‘’a little settlement of farmers’’) was a Kirchdorf at that time, being located to the left of the Murg in the south of the Waldbach on the ebersteinian allodium.