Early history The oldest traces of human life in the area around Hofheim date back to the
Palaeolithic period, with the oldest find dating back to around 40,000 B.C. From the
Neolithic period from around 5000 B.C. onwards, settlement areas on the banks of the
Schwarzbach, on both sides of today's Schmelzweg and on the Kapellenberg have been identified. Especially the Michelsberg culture around 4400 to 3500 B.C. is shown by numerous traces of settlements and finds on the Kapellenberg (Ringwallanlage). Around 30/40 A.D., the area was settled by the
Romans, who built the Hofheim fort here as a two-phase complex - first an earth fort and from 75 A.D. under
Emperor Vespasian also a stone fort, which existed until 110 A.D. - in order to secure the
Wetterau region, to protect the route between
Mainz and
Nida in today's
Frankfurt-Heddernheim, and to protect the Limes triangle, among other things. The fort was built by the Romans as a two-phase complex.
Middle Ages The first documented mention was in 1254 under the name Hoveheim, but the suffix -heim indicates a much earlier
Frankish foundation. Hofheim belonged to
Count Philipp VI the Elder of Falkenstein, when
Emperor Charles IV on 21. This document gave the lords of Hofheim the right to build walls, gates and bridges, to erect a gallows, to hold court, to conduct crafts and to hold a market. In the imperial war against Philip the Elder of Falkenstein (Falkenstein Feud), the town was conquered by the
Electorate of Mainz in 1366, to which it was subject until 1418. This was followed by the rule of the
Counts of Eppstein-Königstein until the extinction of the dynasty in 1535. During this time, the first
Jews were recorded in Hofheim. Within the 16th century, the owners changed only twice. From 1535 to 1574 the dominion of Eppstein-Königstein belonged to
Count Ludwig von Stolberg, who introduced the Reformation in Hofheim in 1540, and from 1574 to 1581 to Christoph von Stolberg. But already in 1559
Elector and Archbishop Daniel Brendel von Homburg had redeemed an old pledge and thus regained Eppstein and Hofheim. After the death of Christoph von Stolberg, the rest of the
county of Königstein also went to the Electorate of Mainz in 1581. Under the reign of
Wolfgang von Dalberg, Archbishop and Elector of Mainz, and his successor
Johann Adam von Bicken, the witch trials in the Electorate of Mainz reached their peak in the period from 1588 to 1602 in both the Höchst and Hofheim districts. From the remains of old court records, the
Aschaffenburg archive remains, 23 women could be identified who were accused of witchcraft, 15 of them found death at the stake. On November 3, 2010, the town council of Hofheim am Taunus decided to rehabilitate the citizens convicted of witchcraft. Until the beginning of 1603,
Protestantism was still the predominant religion among the inhabitants despite the town's affiliation with the Catholic Electorate of Mainz. It was not until June of that year that the Protestant pastor was replaced by a Catholic one. During the
Thirty Years' War, Spanish, Bavarian, Swedish and French troops occupied, plundered and devastated the town and its present-day districts. Inhabitants were tortured into revealing the hiding places of cattle, horses and household goods. In addition to famine, epidemics broke out again and again, and in 1635 the plague spread through the region. In Hofheim, the number of men (burghers) dropped from 76 and 13 widows to 27 within four years in 1635 (no subdivision into men and widows). Finally, at the end of the
Thirty Years' War in 1648, there were 40 men and 4 widows. Children, women and bystanders were not recorded in counts as a matter of principle. From 1665 on, the plague raged in Mainz and
Frankfurt as well as in the region of today's
Main-Taunus district. The following year Hofheim was still free of the plague and on July 3, 1666, Pastor Gleidener led the inhabitants in a procession to the "Rabberg" (today's Kapellenberg) to take a vow: If the town was spared from the plague, a chapel should be built on this spot in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The chapel was built in 1667 and replaced by a successor building in 1774. Hofheim is also described in the
Topographia Hassiae: With the beginning of the
French Revolution in 1789, a 26-year period of peace ended for Hofheim. The population had come to a modest prosperity and had grown to a thousand inhabitants. With the occupation of the city of Mainz by French Revolutionary troops and finally of the city of Frankfurt in 1792, Hofheim residents began years of suffering. Alternating troop marches and quarterings brought looting, famine, and epidemics. In the
Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, Hofheim fell to the
principality of Nassau-Usingen. In 1806, it was united with the
principality of Nassau-Weilburg. Together they formed the
Duchy of Nassau. In 1866 this was annexed by
Prussia and from then on existed as the
province of Hesse-Nassau. After Hofheim had long been sidelined in terms of transportation, the town was connected to the railroad network from 1874 to 1877 with the construction of the
Main-Lahn Railway between Frankfurt and
Limburg. A renewed economic upswing began. Hofheim had also become interesting for Taunus tourists from Frankfurt thanks to the rail connection.
20th and 21st centuries The First World War 1914-1918 claimed its victims: 121 men fell in acts of war. Numerous inhabitants, especially children, died as a result of malnutrition. After the
armistice treaty of November 11, 1918, an
occupation of Hofheim by French troops followed as early as December 2, which lasted until 1929 (officially until 1930) ( Allied occupation of the Rhineland). Hofheim was located within the thirty-kilometer radius around Mainz, which had to be cleared of German soldiers - in accordance with the victors' demands. Within these zones were the cities of
Cologne and
Koblenz, the area on the right bank of the
Rhine, and the city of
Kehl (the latter with a smaller radius). In 1933, the
National Socialists took power in Hofheim as well. In the
Reichstag election on March 5, 36.91 percent of the residents in Hofheim voted for the
NSDAP. In the municipal elections on March 12, 1933, the NSDAP won 6 of 12 seats. The other seats were held by the
SPD (3) and the
Center Party (3). On June 22, the SPD was banned, and the Center Party dissolved under massive pressure on July 5. Thus, the NSDAP was the only remaining party in Hofheim's city parliament and, as of July 24 anyway, by law the only permitted party in the German Reich. The NSDAP was the only party in Hofheim's city parliament. By April 11, 1933, the previous mayors in 13 municipalities in the Main-Taunus district had been replaced by NSDAP members. Since 1920, Oskar Meyrer held the office of mayor in Hofheim and was to keep it until his death on August 1, 1942. After that, the position was not filled again, but continued to be held by the local group leader Georg Kaufmann on a deputy basis. Discrimination and persecution of
Communists,
Social Democrats, members of the
Confessing Church, and especially
Jewish residents began as soon as the Nazis came to power. There had been a Jewish community since the
Middle Ages. Around 1800, a synagogue had been established by the members in the former Wehrturm/Büttelturm. In 1933 the community comprised about 35 members. In the night of November 9–10, 1938 (Reichspogromnacht) this synagogue was devastated. Because of the narrow buildings in the old town, the synagogue was not set on fire. A similar fate befell the synagogue in Wallau (since 1977 a district of Hofheim). Only a few inhabitants were able to save themselves by emigrating abroad; the others were deported and were murdered in concentration camps. The almost 500-year-old Jewish community which had numbered around 40~ people since the 19th century was destroyed. On January 1, 1980, Hofheim im Taunus became the administrative centre of the Main-Taunus-Kreis, although the move was not completed until 1987 with the completion of the new administrative building in Hofheim. The administrative seat was previously in the Frankfurt district of
Höchst, which was part of the county as an independent town of Höchst am Main until its incorporation into Frankfurt in 1928. In 1988, the city of Hofheim was the 28th
Hessentag city. Between 2008 and 2014, 89
stumbling blocks for victims of National Socialism were laid in the town of Hofheim and the districts of Marxheim, Diedenbergen, Wallau and Langenhain by the artist
Gunter Demnig. On April 28, 2025, the
main belt asteroid was named
347020 Hofheim, after the town. ==Demographics==