In 2016, the town was awarded the honorary title European City of the Reformation by the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe, and in 2024, Herrnhut was inscribed on the World Heritage List as part of the serial site "Moravian Church Settlements" (Siedungen der Herrnhuter Brüdergemeinde) alongside Christiansfeld (Denmark), Bethlehem (USA) and Gracehill (Northern Ireland).

Since 1 January 2013, when Berthelsdorf was incorporated, the municipal area contains 11 subdivisions: Herrnhut proper was founded in the early 18th century by German-speaking members of the Unity of the Brethren, religious refugees from Margraviate of Moravia.

After meeting with their leader Christian David, a Moravian missionary, the German nobleman Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700–1760) invited them to settle on his extended Berthelsdorf estates.

The first organized Protestant missionary movement began from Herrnhut in 1732, when 2 Bohemian Brethren went to the Danish West Indies, and then others went also to Greenland.

Zinzendorf's community influenced John Wesley in creating Methodism and it contributed to the rise of Evangelicalism, a broad interdenominational movement of more than 300 million people all over the globe.

Many European languages have named the Moravian Church movement directly after Herrnhut, for example hernhuutlus in Estonian, herrnhutilaisuus in Finnish, hernhūtieši in Latvian and herrnhutismen in both Norwegian and Swedish.

Its economy is based on church administration, education, tourism and manufacturing, including a 25-pointed star that is often hung in windows and on porches during the Christmas season, which has been produced for over 150 years.