The earliest mention of locum getwinc is a document from 1015 in which Emperor Heinrich II donated hunting rights to the Lorsch Abbey. The placename Zwingenberg refers to how travellers on the Bergstraße were forced (in German gezwungen; infinitive zwingen) to pass through the town's gates by the wetland and lowland forest that lay west of town. Through his marriage to Hildegard von Henneberg, Henry II of Katzenelnbogen, whom King Konrad III raised to Count in 1138, had parts of the Bergstraße pass to him about 1135. Zwingenberg now belonged to the County of Katzenelnbogen with its seat at the like-named town. The county was divided into upper and lower halves, with the former lying on the Rhine around Sankt Goar and the latter in southern Hessen. To guard his southern holdings on the Bergstraße and his toll income, Count Diether IV built a lower castle in Zwingenberg and a high castle, the Auerbacher Schloss, above Auerbach. In 1258, Diether V received the right to build a church in Zwingenberg: Cathedral Provost Werner, Cathedral Deacon Johann and the Chapter at Mainz as well as Provost Ludwig of St. Viktor thereat evince that the inhabitants of Zwingenberg can only reach their mother church in Bensheim to hear God’s word and receive the Sacraments with difficulty owing to the great distance and danger to life. They allow therefore with the Archbishop’s approval at the request of the worldly lord in Zwingenberg, Count Diether of Katzenelnbogen, a church with graveyard to be built in Zwingenberg and a priest of its own to be appointed. In 1260, the county was partitioned between Diether V and his brother Eberhard I, with Diether taking Zwingenberg and Eberhard Auerbach. Zwingenberg was granted town and market rights under Count Diether V and King Rudolf of Habsburg, thereby becoming the oldest town on the Bergstraße. In 1301, Zwingenberg was destroyed and went up in flames. Count Wilhelm I of Katzenelnbogen, Diether V's son, had allied himself with four Rhenish electors and raised tolls on the Rhine, the upshot to which was damage to free trade and a declaration of war from King Albrecht I. The Lower Castle was destroyed, too. In 1330, Emperor Louis the Bavarian confirmed to Count Wilhelm I Zwingenberg's town rights: Emperor Louis confirms to the Count Wilhelm of Katzenelnbogen for faithful services the freedom that King Rudolf granted him for Zwingenberg, and the freedom that