In its early history, the inhabitants and the town of Grafenwöhr proper belonged to nobles from Schweinfurt, Bamberg, and Leuchtenberg.

In 1907, Prince Luitpold, regent of the Kingdom of Bavaria, selected the area near the town of Grafenwöhr as the place best suited for training of the Bavarian Army (1806–1919).

After the War, the High Command, Berlin, used Grafenwöhr to train the 100,000–man German army, allowed by the Treaty of Versailles (1919).

In 1936, the Nazi Government expanded the training area to the present size of 230 square kilometres (90 sq mi).

The military installation is also home to one of the largest Army construction projects in Europe, called Efficient Basing-Grafenwöhr.

Due to its length and relative proximity to the JMTC training area, it makes for a realistic simulation of short field operations encountered around the world.