Birstein is a municipality on the northeastern edge of the Main-Kinzig-Kreis in Hesse, Germany with approximately 6,600 inhabitants.

Bad Soden-Salmünster and the municipality of Brachttal border it on the south, as do Kefenrod and the town of Gedern on the west, both in the Wetteraukreis.

Lichenroth, Mauswinkel, Oberreichenbach, Birstein, Obersotzbach, Unterreichenbach, Untersotzbach, Völzberg, Wettges, and Wüstwillenroth.

The palace at Birstein, originally a fortified royal hunting lodge, was first cited in documents in 1279 as castrum birsenstein and gave its name to the surrounding town.

On September 7, 1763, the French army under Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, which had been defeated at Würzburg four days before, marched through the town on their retreat.

On July 21, 1684, fire destroyed 17 homes, 18 barns, 9 cattle stalls, and a bakehouse in the Oberberg, but spared the nearby church and rectory.

On June 27, 1767, a terrible hailstorm gave rise to a yearly day of prayer against severe weather.

Birstein escaped damage in World War II, although many of its young men were killed as soldiers.

It was occupied by the Americans after the war, and eventually became part of the Main-Kinzig-Kreis in the state of Hesse in the new Federal Republic of Germany.

This came about as follows: Alexander's ancestor Karl Viktor of Isenburg was raised a Protestant in the family tradition after his father's early death, but converted to Catholicism, the religion of his mother Princess Maria Crescentia zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, on May 2, 1861.

A majority of these were forced to emigrate in the first years of the National Socialist regime, and the Jewish community was officially dissolved in 1937.