During the Carolingian dynasty, the family's Frankish ancestors settled the Nördlinger Ries area in northeastern Alamannia.
In the Duchy of Swabia, the Thannhausens held large estates and important offices, as documented under the rule of the Hohenstaufen duke Frederick II in 1112 and 1115.
Following the writings of Felix Fabri (1438/39–1502), it is also assumed that the medieval minnesinger and poet Tannhäuser (d. after 1265) was an offspring of this family[1] and that he may be identical with Lupoldus Danhäuser mentioned in a 1246 deed issued by the Franconian counts of Hohenlohe.
Family members were also entrusted with public offices in the modern era: in 1552, William of Thannhausen (1518–1596) is documented as a cavalry captain (Hauptmann) in the service of the Hohenzollern margraves of Ansbach, succeeded by his son Hans-Wolf (1555–1635) during the Thirty Years' War.
The brothers Frederick and Maximilian of Thannhausen were commanders in the French Grande Armée and were killed in the Napoleonic Wars.