The town lies south of the Stölzinger Gebirge (range) in the narrowest part of the Fulda valley.

On the so-called Stölzinger Höhe (heights) in the northeast, above the outlying centre of Dankerode, Rotenburg has a boundary with the town of Waldkappel.

Besides the main town, Rotenburg a.d. Fulda is made up of the outlying Stadtteile of Lispenhausen, Braach, Schwarzenhasel, Erkshausen, Seifertshausen, Dankerode, Atzelrode (with Alte Teich Estate and Wüstefeld) and Mündershausen.

In 769, the outlying centres of Braach and Lispenhausen, along with the now vanished village of Breitingen (which lay somewhere near the Hochmahle) had their first documentary mentions in the Hersfeld Abbey’s directory of holdings.

The Landgraves of Thuringia, who inherited the Vogtei from the Gisonen, built on the Alter Turm (mountain) Rodenberg Castle, which today lies in ruins, but is believed to be the town’s namesake.

Following the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in 1939, it was the location of the Oflag IX-C prisoner-of-war camp for Polish officers and orderlies, which in June 1940 was converted into a subcamp of the Oflag IX-A camp in Spangenberg, and then held Belgian officers.

The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results: The town's executive (Magistrat) is made up of six councillors, including the mayor, with four seats allotted to the SPD and two to the CDU.

As at January 2006, 4,188 workers are employed in town, of which 989 jobs are offered by producing businesses, 2,143 by service providers, 367 by trade, 80 by forestry and agriculture and 609 by other fields of endeavour.

Rotenburg lies on Bundesstraße 83 and on the so-called Friedrich-Wilhelms-Nordbahn (railway), which is nowadays part of the Mitte-Deutschland-Verbindung (“Middle Germany Connection”).

Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine (daily newspaper) with its Lokalteil Rotenburg Bebra (local section) and the Kreisanzeiger published district-wide.

There is also the BKK Akademie, where there is training in social insurance law and related themes for those employed in the field.