Lichtenfels lies at the northeast foot of the Rothaargebirge, some 80 km (50 mi) southwest of Kassel.

The municipal area, across which the town's outlying centres are broadly scattered, is crossed by the rivers Orke and Aar.

For a long time after the Castle Lichtenfels was built high above the Orke about 800 years ago, almost nobody gave Dalwigksthal any thought.

As a result of the Waldeck Law of 24 January 1851, the estates of Kampf, Sand and Lichtenfels as well as the settlements and mills found there were merged into the village of Dalwigksthal.

On 21 July 1267, Corvey pledged to Count Adolf of Waldeck, among other things, Schloss Lichtenfels (the castle).

After fierce feuds, Corvey had to pass entitlement to the castle's ownership to Count Otto of Waldeck for good in 1297.

The Archbishop of Cologne, as Duke of Westphalia, raised claim to the places Münden, Neukirchen and Rhadern in the Amt of Lichtenfels, which in the 16th and 17th centuries led to protracted trials and battles.

In the late 1980s, an entrepreneurial family bought the castle, which by then was once again falling into disrepair and gave it a comprehensive makeover.

Thanks to the resistance of the Schaaken Monastery, which held the patronage rights to Goddelsheim, the Electors' plans fell through.

The place that is now Lichtenfels's constituent community of Immighausen first came to history's attention about 850 when Countess Ida transferred her goods near Ymminchusen to Corvey Abbey.

History records that in 1028 a farm at Imminghusen was transferred by the Abbot of Corvey, at Emperor Conrad's behest, to the dowager Alvered's son.

Furthermore, there are the women's choir, the Landfrauen, the sport club with its subgroup the "Klostermönche" ("Monastery Monks") and the fire brigade.

The Lichtenfels regional group of the Waldeck History Club (Waldeckischer Geschichtsverein) also has its seat in Immighausen.

It was at this time that the von Dalwigk family were granted the forsaken hamlet along with the rest of the Amt of Lichtenfels as a fief.

The chapel lying on the way out of the village towards Fürstenberg was separated from its mother church in 1260 and raised to a parish in its own right.

Already by 1301, though, history records a Ditmar von Nuwenkyrchen, Juryman at Sachsenberg, proof that there had already been a settlement there for some time before the Count's daughter's wedding.

By 1663, however, Cologne had forgone its claim to the village, thus also bringing an end to the Electors' attempts to reintroduce the Catholic faith into the community.

In 1028, Emperor Konrad acknowledged that the Abbot of Corvey Abbey had given the dowager Alvered the estate at Gimundia for her lifelong use, thereby giving Münden its first documentary mention.

Late in the 13th century, Corvey Abbey pledged the Amt of Münden to Count Otto of Waldeck.

Today, Münden, lying between Dalwigksthal and Medebach in Westphalia, belongs to Lichtenfels as a constituent community.

Earlier names for the village besides Gimundia were Gemundi (1120), Gimunden (1125), Munden (1298), Gemonden (1321), Gemunden (1336, 1473) and Dreckmünden (1679).

The town council's 23 seats are apportioned thus, in accordance with municipal elections held on 26 March 2006: Note: The last two named are citizens' coalitions.