The Köterberg was already being mentioned in Lippe's boundary deeds in the 16th century. The Brothers Grimm called it the Götzenberg in their German Legends (Nos. 9, 20), because it was here that folk prayed to the gods of the heath. The Köterberg was also the setting for their fairy tale The Three Little Birds. Between 1796 and 1801 Karl Ludwig von Lecoq incorporated the Keutersberg as a triangulation point in his military-topographical surveys.