The town of Sangerhausen, which is more than a thousand years old, lies on the mountain slopes of the southern Harz, which here form the northern end of the Golden Aue. The town is a Frankish foundation from the 6th century. Archaeological finds prove that there were settlements here as early as the Neolithic period (4,500 - 1,700 BC). The name Sangerhausen indicates that the settlers cleared the forest by scything. "Sangerhusen" is first mentioned in the register of documents of the Fulda monastery, between the years 780 and 802.
In the tithe register of the Hersfeld monastery, Sangerhausen is mentioned in the middle of the 9th century.
The first dated document in which "Sangirhusen" is mentioned comes from Emperor Otto III and was signed on 4 October 991. Around 1204, Sangerhausen probably received town charter, which is first documented in 1263.

In 1247, Sangerhausen fell to the Wettin Margraves of Meissen, who enlarged the town and developed it as a border fortress. Over the next centuries, the town was beholden to various lords, such as the Margraves of Brandenburg, the Dukes of Brunswick and the Duchy of Weissenfels.
The planned expansion of the town to the west began as early as the 13th century. The building stock in the old town is largely preserved from the 15th - 18th centuries. The old town centre with Göpenstraße, Kornmarkt, the market with the Renaissance town hall and patrician houses, which is now a listed building, shows the historical development of the town almost unchanged.
Today, Sangerhausen is a district town in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt and has about 25,000 inhabitants with its incorporated districts.