Originally Roman Catholic, Birstein began to move toward Protestantism in 1530, when the minister Johannes Henkel began to preach in favor of Martin Luther in Unterreichenbach. In 1544, Count Reinhard of Isenburg, the ruler of the region, converted to Protestantism. On August 7, 1597 Count Wolfgang Ernst I of Isenburg announced the conversion of the region itself. The 200-year-old Protestant church in Birstein burned to its foundations on January 7, 1913; the current church was built on the same site and consecrated on April 19, 1914.