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The area was settled quite early on, first by the Celts, and then, during the Christian Era, by the Ubii and later the Mattiaci. In the first century CE,[clarification needed] the Romans advanced to the Taunus. The Alamanni followed, and with the onset of the Migration Period, the Franks.
The town's oldest documentary mention is a document from 1085 in which Archbishop Wezilo documented a donation, from Mainz Cathedral Canon Embricho to the cathedral chapter, of a number of holdings, among them a house and vineyards in Lorch.
In the Middle Ages, Lorch served as the northern bastion of the Archbishopric of Mainz facing toward the Rheingau. Beginning in the twelfth century, Lorch found itself at the southern end of the Rheingauer Gebück, a kind of border defence made out of an impenetrable “hedge” of stunted trees (the word itself comes from the German root of bücken, meaning “stoop”, a reference to the trees’ thick, low boughs). This was put in place by the Archbishops of Mainz.
In the thirteenth century, a parish first documented in 1254 was established in Lorch.
In 1460, 1631, 1794, and in the final phase of the Second World War, there was warfare in Lorch, which sometimes brought considerable destruction.
Twentieth century[edit]
On 10 January 1919, the Free State of Bottleneck, a provisional statelike entity between occupation zones after the First World War, was proclaimed, with Lorch as de facto “capital”. Even today, many of the microstate’s coats of arms in the town still recall this time.
In the early 1960s, the Bundeswehr came to town with its Flugabwehrregiment 5 (“Antiaircraft Regiment 5”). A new settlement, the Ranselberg, was built for soldiers and their families. The barracks in the picturesque Wisper Valley represented an important economic factor for the town of Lorch. Many local people found work in the barracks, the attached post administration, the munitions depot, the equipment depot, and the sanitary depot.
In the course of Bundeswehr reform, the barracks were closed in 1993. At the site, the underground Gerätehauptdepot Lorch-Wispertal (“Main Equipment Depot”) and the likewise underground Sanitätshauptdepot Lorch-Rheingau (“Main Sanitary Depot”) remained. In November 2003, the complete abandonment of the Bundeswehr post was announced. The sanitary company was to be withdrawn in early 2008. By 31 December 2007, the Sanitätshauptdepot was to be dissolved, and a year later the Gerätehauptdepot was to disappear. Some 280 civilians would thereby lose their jobs.
Meanwhile, various businesses have set up in the abandoned Bundeswehr facilities, which has offset the job losses due to the military's pullout to a certain extent.
