Although traces of settlement go far back, the current places in the municipality go back to clearing in
Frankish times. The first of the constituent communities to have a documentary mention was Bermbach, which was named as
Barenbach in a document from the
Lorsch codex in 772. For many centuries this was borderland; the
Limes ran nearby, and later, the
Electoral Mainz's,
Hesse's and
Nassau's spheres of influence all came up against each other here. From 1276 to 1570 the village was bound to the noble family of the Lords of Bermbach. Later, Bermbach was mentioned in connection with the persecution of witches and the legendary
Schinderhannes (1801). The constituent municipality of Esch goes back to a settlement from the 6th century, having had its first documentary mention as
Eschze in the rent register of the archive deacon at Dietkirchen. Esch lies at the junction of the ancient
Frankfurt-
Limburg-
Cologne trade road and the linking road between the
Rhine and the
Wetterau, and thereby always had a high traffic volume. The story of how Niederems came to be can be traced back to 1274. Through hunger, pestilence and wars, the population figure was always very low. In particular, the
Thirty Years' War reduced the number of households considerably. Settlement in Reichenbach can be traced back to pre-Christian times. Worth mentioning are the
barrow “Goldkessel” and the
Celtic circular rampart. In 1428, the place was mentioned as
Richinbach in the annals of Nassau-Idstein. In 1772, a fire destroyed the old village centre, although this was quickly rebuilt. From 1604 to 1968, Reichenbach had its own school. Near the constituent municipality of Steinfischbach are found in the form of the barrows Totenkopf and Goldkessel clues to an early settlement. The village had its first documentary mention in 1156 under the name
Vispach in a document from Archbishop Arnold of Mainz. Nearby there were
iron ore prospecting and a
quarry for
millstones, road gravel,
cobblestones and border stones. Wüstems was mentioned in 1435 as
Wosten Emsse in a record by Cuno von Reifenberg. The name's first syllable,
Wüst, likely derives from
Wüstungen (
German for “abandoned settlements”) and refers to a forsaken village or rural area. The name of the brook, Ems, is from
Old High German Ohm. Both these name elements point to a settlement period lasting more than 2,000 years. Also pointing to such a thing is the Celtic circular rampart on the nearby Taunus peak, Burg. In 1806, the municipal area belonged to the
Duchy of Nassau. In 1866 it passed to
Prussia. In the framework of municipal reform in Hesse, the hitherto self-governing communities of Bermbach, Esch, Niederems, Reichenbach, Steinfischbach and Wüstems merged in 1972 into today's greater municipality of Waldems. ==Politics==