Witzenhausen’s 16 Stadtteile, besides the main town, also called Witzenhausen, are, on the Werra’s left bank: On the river’s right bank: In 1898, the Deutsche Kolonialschule für Landwirtschaft, Handel und Gewerbe (“German Colonial School for Agriculture, Trade and Industry”, also called the Tropenschule, or “Tropical School”) was founded to train people in agriculture for resettlement in Germany's colonies.

The successor institution forms today a satellite campus of the University of Kassel, and includes a greenhouse complex dedicated to tropical crops (the Gewächshaus für tropische Nutzpflanzen).

Witzenhausen suffers – like the whole Werra-Meißner-Kreis and a great part of North Hesse – from extremely high unemployment and its attendant loss of younger people to migration.

Witzenhausen is domicile of Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung alter und gefährdeter Haustierrassen (GEH, the society for the conservation of old and endangered livestock breeds).

It is located above the town on the north slope of the Werra valley and is served by trains to Kassel, Göttingen, Erfurt and Halle.

St. Vallier's mayor's last name at the time was Witzenhausen, and when, on a visit to Germany, he spotted this name on a road sign, he drove to the town.