Lauterbach

Lauterbach lies in the Vogelsberg country of central Hesse. First mentioned in a church document in 812, it belonged in the Middle Ages to Fulda Abbey, which granted it as a fief to the counts of Ziegenhain. The settlement received town rights in 1266, when work also began on a castle and town wall. Its ownership changed repeatedly in the centuries that followed, creating a complicated web of rights.

The town became Lutheran during the Reformation, as religious and political authority across the German lands was being contested. A settlement in 1684 placed Lauterbach under the Riedesel family of Eisenbach, who held a small independent territory until 1806. After the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the town became part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse.