Ballenstedt itself was not mentioned before 1073, when King Henry IV of Germany certified the donation of the estates by Esico's son Count Adalbert II to Nienburg Abbey.
A part of the re-unified Duchy of Anhalt from 1863 on, Ballenstedt became known as a residential town for the well-to-do retired like Princess Friederike of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, who died at Ballenstedt Castle in 1902, or the painter and author Wilhelm von Kügelgen, whose house is now a museum.