Today the peak is the site of the Hotel Petersberg, which serves as a guest house of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 1189, by order of the Archbishop of Cologne Philipp von Heinsberg, Cistercian monks from the abbey of Himmerod took over an abandoned hermitage built by Augustinians.

The mountain was first known as Stromberg (as documented in 1142) and received its current name after a chapel dedicated to Saint Peter was erected on its peak in 1764.

At the end of the 19th century the Nelles brothers from Cologne bought the area and by 1892 had opened the Hotel Petersberg, along with the Petersbergbahn, a rack railway that linked it to Königswinter.

Since the Second World War, the hotel has served as the headquarters of the Allied High Commission for Germany, and as a guest house for the Federal German Government.