In the surroundings of Weissenfels you can find prove of settlement for about 10.000 years. In the middle of the 12th century the settlement by German and Flemish farmers began. By this time a lot of settlement extended and developed into towns. Markgrave Otto von Meissen led a systematic settlement at about 1185.

The name of the Weissenfels was first mentioned in 1190 in a document.
In those days the name Weissenfels had been "Wizenvels".
Weissenfels was build on a white sandstone (white rock) and therefore the town got its name.

Already in the 13th century Weissenfels was an important trading city.
There where several plaque epidemics and hundreds of people died of the disease.
After the first big plaque epidemic in the middle of the 14th century the jews were accused of being responsible for it.
People believed the Jews had contaminated the wells. Therefore there were a lot of riots against the Jewish population.
A Latin inscription at the church "St.Marien" reminds of such an event. The text reads as follows: "Anno domini 1350, that is in the year of jubilee, Geissler was here and Jews were burned."

The people build a new cemetery after a new plaque epidemic in 1522. This cemetery was changed into the "Stadtgarten" in 1903/04.

On June 3, 1539 the reformation started in Weißenfels. The churches and the monasteries in and out of town were secularized.
As a result of the "Thirty Years` War" (1618-1648) the economic situation of the town decreased. Therefore there was also a decline in population. The battle at Lutzen (November 6th, 1632) was a disaster for the population of Weissenfels.