The Aacher Hof was first mentioned in a document as early as 830. Emperor Louis the Pious (814-840), son of Charlemagne, gave Traben with all his entitlements and appendages Traben, Litzig, Rissbach, Irmenach and Beuren to the Aachen Minster (Aachener Marienstift), where the German kings were crowned.
Due to the affiliation to the rear county of Sponheim, the Reformation was also introduced in Trarbach and Traben in 1557, so that the place is still predominantly Protestant, even if the proportion of the Catholic population increased significantly, mainly due to immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries is. The administration of the evangelical church in the rear county of Sponheim was initially carried out by the Birkenfeld chancellery. In 1672 a Lutheran consistory was set up in Trarbach, the tasks of which were transferred to the consistory in Zweibrücken from 1776.
All of today's districts (with the exception of part of Kautenbach) belonged to the rear county of Sponheim, whose main town remained Trarbach even after the counts had died out, although the two ruling sovereigns (the county was a Palatinate-Baden condominium) had their residence elsewhere within the county had, namely in Birkenfeld and in Kastellaun. At the same time, however, Trarbach was also the main town of the Oberamt of the same name. In 1815 the area around Trarbach was incorporated into Prussia and Trarbach became the seat of a mayor's office. Contrary to expectations, however, Zell and not Trarbach became the district town, although Trarbach was the largest town in the new district of Zell. The mayor's office of Trarbach was dissolved in 1884. Trarbach no longer belonged to a mayor's office and was henceforth administered in a personal union with the new mayor's office of Traben.
In 1818 the Trarbach synod was established, with Trarbach as its main town until 1972. Because of the size - the synod includes the districts of Bernkastel, Zell and Trier - it was divided in 1825. Curiously, the Wolf district belonged to the Trier Synod until 1892, which until 1843 was called "Wolf Synod" after the superintendent's place of residence.
In the great fire of July 21, 1857 almost all of Trarbach fell victim to the flames. Of the 1700 inhabitants, 1400 became homeless.
At the end of the 19th century, Traben and Trarbach were also the first towns in Germany, along with Bad Reichenhall, to have electric street lighting built by the Edison company, today's AEG, instead of gas lamps, after individual streets in Berlin had previously been equipped with them.
In 1898, a first bridge was built between the two places based on a design by the architect Bruno Möhring. This bridge, which was blown up in the last days of the war in 1945, was also the first road bridge between Bernkastel and Koblenz. The next bridges were not built until 1924 in Cochem and 1951-1953 in Zell.
Finally, in 1904, the municipality of Traben and the city of Trarbach merged to form the new city of Traben-Trarbach. The next changes came on June 7, 1969, when the communities of Kautenbach and Wolf were incorporated into Traben-Trarbach. A year later, the Verbandsgemeinde of Traben-Trarbach was re-formed. It has its administrative headquarters in the city, Traben-Trarbach is a municipality belonging to the association.