Located at the steep northeastern rim of the Harz mountain range, it is known for the scenic Bode Gorge stretching above the town centre.

Established by an Eastphalian comital family and based on the model of Herford Abbey, it was one of the first monasteries in the medieval Duchy of Saxony.

After Queen Dowager Matilda, wife of the late King Henry the Fowler, tried in vain to relocate the convent in 936, it came under the guardianship of the newly established Quedlinburg chapter.

The adjacent village was first mentioned in a 1231 deed as Dat Dorp to dem Dale (from 1288 it was given the Latinised description de valle, and from 1303 as von Thale).

It was rebuilt from 1648 onwards after the devastations of the Thirty Years' War as the Berghaus zum Wilden Mann, but was fully destroyed in 1670.

After the secularised Halberstadt territories were incorporated by Brandenburg-Prussia, a small hammer mill was established in 1686 out of which a new ironworks later developed that benefited especially from its proximity to the ore deposits and the availability of wood.

Part of the Prussian Province of Saxony since 1815, the first wrought-iron wagon axle to be made in the German lands was manufactured here in 1831.

As a result, various literary figures visited the place, including Heinrich Heine (Die Harzreise) and Theodor Fontane and especially the Bode Gorge.