The municipality lies in the Vulkaneifel, a part of the Eifel known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth.

Archaeological finds bear witness to human habitation in the Hillesheim limestone hollow between 600 and 400 BC.

About 225 BC, the Treveri, a people of mixed Celtic and Germanic stock, from whom the Latin name for the city of Trier, Augusta Treverorum, is also derived, built a defensive structure on the Weinberg (mountain) near Kerpen.

In 1218, the outlying centre of Loogh had its first documentary mention in a donation of two homesteads, the Keulen-Häuser, by the Lords of Kerpen to the convent in Niederehe.

Between 1308 and 1324, there was a dispute between the Lords of Kerpen and Archbishop Heinrich of Cologne over patronage rights in the Parish of Wevelinghoven near Neuss.

Between 1334 and 1345, the Archbishops of Trier and Cologne were granted the right to use Castle Kerpen as a military stronghold.

In 1351, Archbishop Willhelm refused to compensate Lords Johann and Dietrich von Kerpen for their losses in the Westphalian War.

In 1360, Dietrich von Kerpen-Warsburg was Schenk (a high official at court, responsible for the wine cellar and vineyards, among other things) to the Archbishop of Cologne.

In 1895, Castle Kerpen was sold to Johann Dhün, and it was acquired by the painter, Fritz von Wille, in 1911.

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Argent in base a mount of three Or upon which a tower embattled of five sable charged with an inescutcheon of the field with a fess dancetty of three gules.

On the keep's wall is an inescutcheon bearing the arms once borne by the Counts of Kerpen (1136–1400), heraldically “Argent a fess dancetty of three gules” (that is, a silver field upon which a horizontal zigzag red stripe with three peaks).

This charge is called a Dreiberg in German heraldry, which literally means “three-mountain”, and the local mountains do indeed number three: the Weinberg (553 m), the Höhenberg (505 m) and the Ko-Berg (482 m).