In 1476, or by 1584 at the latest, Oberelbert had a chapel. The Oberelbert coalmine was part of the "Amt" and "Bann" of Montabaur before 1500, but after the "Bann" of Montabaur was partitioned about 1550 or 1560, the community passed to the "Bann" of Holler. In 1508, the representatives from Oberelbert and Niederelbert acknowledged by old usage in a "Weisentum" the Archbishop of Trier as their overlord and the Lords of Helfenstein as Lords of the Court. In 1519, the Archbishop of Trier transferred half the Elbert landlordship to the Lords of Nassau (at the Sporkenburg, which was a castle) as a fief. In 1602, three fourths of the landlordship was held by the Lords of Metternich. The other fourth was a cameralistic possession in the Electorate of Trier. Between 1630 and 1636, during the Thirty Years' War, Oberelbert was utterly destroyed and became uninhabitable. Beginning about 1642, building work to restore the community and settle it once again was undertaken.