Ludwig II of Thuringia had Neuerburg built around the year 1170 (1160 to 1180). It is a kind of prototype of a Hohenstaufen castle.
In 1218, a noble family (ministeriales) named themselves after it, the family of Countess Mechthild von Sayn, who occasionally visited the castle after the death of her husband Heinrich III of Sayn († 1246/1247). In 1250, she handed over the castle to the Archbishopric of Cologne. The castle itself was located in the Hunschaft of Breitscheid. Two residential houses were included, intended for a forester, a castle warden, and administrative officials. Most often, there were six castle wardens from Kelterhof, Kurtenacker, Ackerhof, Hegerhof, and Wolfenacker.
Since 1290, a Cologne administrative district of the same name was named after Neuerburg, which was frequently pledged (e.g., temporarily to the Isenburg-Grenzau and von der Leyen families). The administrative area of the Neuerburg district was consistently identical to that of the later Verbandsgemeinde Waldbreitbach, with the municipalities of Kurtscheid and Datzeroth having a special historical status. The administrative seat (Huhns-Mühle) was the village of Niederbreitbach until modern times.
In the 17th century, the decay of the castle began. Before 1850, the remaining buildings were finally demolished by the Princes of Wied, the then and still current owners of the ruins.
During the advance of American troops in 1945, the ruins were shelled, and the castle grounds received about 60 hits from grenades. The partially preserved battlements in the main castle were destroyed. One-third of the grenades hit the keep and its parapet. The east and south walls of the castle were leveled to the ground. Reconstruction began in 1946, with the plan to make the keep inhabitable again.
