The city of Nordhausen is located in the German federal state of Thuringia and has about 40,000 inhabitants. It has a small tram network with a system length of 7 kilometres. In addition, there is an 11 kilometre long route to Ilfeld, where trams equipped with an additional diesel engine run on a catenary-free railway line of the Harzian narrow-gauge railways (HSB). The HSB as well as the trams run on tracks with a gauge of 1,000 millimetres.

The tram system is operated by Verkehrsbetriebe Nordhausen GmbH, a subsidiary of → Stadtwerken Nordhausen (Nordhausen municipal utilities).