Sarmersbach experienced Germany's long history in microcosm in the Middle Ages. They were held by both secular lords, such as the Castle Lords of Daun, the Lords of Winneburg and the Lords of Brohl, and ecclesiastical ones such as the Archbishopric of Trier and Springiersbach Abbey, under whom the unfree peasants toiled away at compulsory labour and paid their tithes. Sarmersbach's great importance in days of yore in the middle of the Struth villages can also be seen in the 14th-century "Schöffenstuhl". This was the seat of seven elected "Schöffen" (roughly “lay jurists”), who along with their 49 colleagues in Daun and the Daun "Amtmann" or the Archbishop of Trier held the assizes several times each year, meting out justice for the "Amt" of Daun.