Middle Ages In 1048, Bad Marienberg had its first documentary mention. It is likely that this same source gave rise to the name Westerwald, since the area around Bad Marienberg lies directly west of
Herborn. In 1258, Marienberg was described as
Mons sanctae Mariae. In the 18th century, the formerly separate communities of Obermarienberg, still an easily recognizable ring-shaped settlement around the parish church today, and Untermarienberg grew together. Marienberg was part of the lordly domain in the Westerwald that was formed out of the three
Gerichte (official regions) of Marienberg, Emmerichenhain and Neukirch, and which Count
Otto I of Nassau won in 1255 in the Ottonian-
Walramian hereditary division. After a further division in 1303, the area passed to Otto's son Henry III of Nassau-Siegen, making it part of Nassau-Dillenburg. From 1343 to 1561, the overlordship in the Westerwald was then held by the Nassau-Dillenburg-Beilstein branch of the family. After they died out, Count
Johann VI of Nassau-Dillenburg ("the Elder") received the inheritance, thereby uniting these German lands – albeit only for a short time.
Modern times After further territorial exchanges within the Nassau dynasty through inheritances, Marienberg ended up, as part of the Beilstein lordly domain, under Prince
William IV's governance. Once again, in 1742–1743, he succeeded in uniting all Ottonian lands within the
Holy Roman Empire. Within the
Orange German possessions now ruled from Dillenburg, Marienberg was at the latest by 1783 put under the
Amt of
Beilstein. The parish of Marienberg counted roughly 450 souls in 1580 and included the villages of Bach, Bölsberg, Eichenstruth, Fehl, Großseifen, Illfurth, Langenbach, Marienberg, Hof, Pfuhl, Ritzhausen, Stockhausen, Unnau and Zinhain. The Counties of
Sayn-Hachenburg and
Sayn-Altenkirchen both lay only a few kilometres away to the northwest. Along with the lordly domain of Beilstein, the village fell in 1806 to the Napoleonic Grand Duchy of Berg, in which, in 1808, it was grouped into the
Arrondissement of Dillenburg within the
Département of Sieg. In 1815, Marienberg went to the
Duchy of Nassau. The
Amt of Marienberg, which was newly organized in 1816, comprised 43 villages and 20 estates with 1,805 families and 7,085 persons. At the same time, the
Amt of Marienberg lay under the jurisdiction of the Dillenburg Criminal Court. In the course of a short-lived administrative reform, Marienberg was annexed in 1849 to the newly founded
Landkreis (rural district) of Hachenburg, before the old arrangement was brought back into force in 1854. In 1866 the Duchy of Nassau passed to
Prussia and became, as the
Regierungsbezirk of Wiesbaden, part of the province of
Hesse-Nassau. With the institution of rural districts after the Prussian model, Marienberg became in 1867 seat of the Oberwesterwaldkreis with the
Ämter of Hachenburg, Marienberg and Rennerod. The last went to the newly created Westerburg district (which also got the
Amt of Wallmerod as well as a few places from the
Amt of Selters from the Unterwesterwaldkreis) in 1885–1886 on the occasion of administrative reform. Although in 1890 Marienberg had only 707 (mostly
Evangelical) inhabitants and was officially said to be a village, it already had a considerable infrastructure at its disposal: the village had a provincial council office (
Landratsamt), a
court (
Landgericht Limburg an der Lahn), a
taxation and
land registry office, a
post and
telegraph office, a
credit union and an agency for the
Nassauische Landesbank. Moreover, there was a
tannery in the village, and nearby were
brown coal and
ironstone mines along with
clay pits. When the district of Westerburg was united with the old Oberwesterwaldkreis to form the new, bigger Oberwesterwaldkreis in 1932, Marienberg lost its function as an administrative seat to Westerburg. Having had town rights conferred on 1 April 1939, Marienberg then belonged to the
French occupation zone and was part of the Upper Presidium of Rhineland-Hesse-Nassau. Since 1947, the town has been part of the
Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate. On 10 August 1967 the town had the title
Bad (literally "bath" – the title means that the town is a recognized spa) bestowed upon it, after already having received the title of
Kneipp resort in 1961. In 1972, Bad Marienberg, along with 17 other
Ortsgemeinden was grouped into a
Verbandsgemeinde, which today is home to just under 20,000 inhabitants (as of 2007). ==Climate==