the site on which adelberg now stands was originally occupied by the village of hundsholz ("dogwood"), which is the source of the leaping dog on adelberg's coat of arms. in 1178, volknand von staufen founded the abbey of adelberg, and gifted to it a part of the village of hundsholz. after the demise of the von staufens, both abbey and town came under the control of württemberg, a state of the holy roman empire. during the reformation, adelberg became a "klosteramt" (an administrative division centering on the estates of a dissolved monastery), consisting of the former abbey and the village of hundsholz. in 1556, the monastery, along with twelve others in the region, were transformed into protestant grammar schools under the direction of christoph binder. the school in adelberg served this purpose until 1648, its most famous pupil being mathematician and astronomer johannes kepler (1584–1586). in 1807, the klosteramt was subsumed into the larger administrative district, "oberamt" of schorndorf. in 1830, the village of hundsholz bought out the property in the village which had previously belonged to the monastery, and the monastery itself. in 1843, the area of the monastery was formally incorporated into the village, which was renamed as adelberg. the administrative reform of 1938 brought the municipality within the district of göppingen. after the second world war, the population rose steeply through the return of former expatriates.