It was located on the northern edge of the Wetterau river valley and consisted of a relatively cohesive block of land held in fief from the Abbey of Fulda.

Soon after, probably under Abbot Widerad of Eppenstein [de] (1060-1075), the region of the assize of Birgenheim was referred to as the "County of Nidda".

[1] Initially, the Vogtei of the small County of Nidda was probably a fief of Fulda in the hands of the Lords of Nürings castle [de] in the Taunus.

Volkold, who is first attested in 1062, served as the Fuldan Vogt in Bingenheim from then on and was the founder of the relatively short-lived House of the first Counts of Nidda.

Volkold's family had acquired a small lordship in the area of Zierenberg in northern Hesse in the 10th century and had established their castle at Malsburg.

In 1154, he lost his remaining Westphalian territories at Atteln and Boke [de] to Abdinghof Abbey in a legal case decided by Duke Henry the Lion.

In 1155, he also lost the castles of Malsburg and Schartenberg to Archbishop Arnold of Mainz, since he had taken the side of Count Palatine Hermann III of Stahleck [de] in a feud.

Louis had become the Count of Ziegenhain after the death of his older brother Gottfried II in 1205 and he therefore united the two counties.

Louis also made donations in Nidda to the Knights of St John, such as Brungesrode in 1226 (near the modern Am Ruppelshof Straße).

As a result of the marriages of his sisters Adelheid and Mechthild, many properties and rights of the County of Nidda passed to their husbands, Ulrich I of Münzenberg and Gerlach II of Büdingen, such as the Vogtei of Schotten.

Louis was a reliable supporter of the Hohenstaufen dynasty and after the election of Philip of Swabia as Emperor in 1198 he is repeatedly attested in his entourage (at Nürnberg in 1205, Boppard in 1206, Gelnhausen and Jülich in 1207).

In the decisive phase of the Hohenstaufens' conflict with the Papacy, however, they switched their support to the Pope, along with their brother Burkhart [de], who was Provost of Saint Peter's Church in Fritzlar from 1240 and became Archbishop of Salzburg in 1247, but died the same year, in the camp of the Papal candidate for emperor, Henry Raspe.

Louis II received the County of Nidda and the Amt of Neustadt, gave up the Vogtei of Burg-Gemünden in exchange for the fiefs of Rodheim [de] and Widdersheim, and had to renounce his claims to Staufenberg [de], Rauschenberg, Treysa, the castle in Burg-Gemünden, Schlitz and Lissberg.

In 1259 Louis purchased the shares of Nidda castle owned by the Rhine Counts [de] Werner II and Siegfried I of Stein.

He also sold substantial territories in the city of Nidda and the wider county to the Knights of St John between 1264 and 1286, probably because he was short of money, and in 1279, he mortgaged the Fuldan Vogtei to Abbot Bertho IV of Fulda [de] for 400 marks.

Louis II sought to maintain his independence against the claims of Sophie of Thuringia and her son Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse to overlordship.

In 1288, Louis leant 350 marks to Archbishop Henry II of Mainz [de] After Louis II's death sometime between 1290 and 1294, his son Engelbert I inherited his territory, taking the title "Count of Ziegenhain, Lord for Nidda" (Graf von Ziegenhain, Herr zu Nidda).

As a dowry, Engelbert and Heilwig gave her their estates at Ulfa, Rodheim, Widdersheim, Dauernheim, Bingenheim, Echzell, Berstadt, Burghards and Crainfeld.

On 4 February 1311, the day of the wedding, Lukardis and John asserted their rights and freedoms at Nidda, and they subsequently did so at Treysa and Ziegenhain as well.

Through the mediation of Archbishop Baldwin of Trier, a peace agreement was achieved in September 1331, but it only lasted until 1339, when John had paid off the fines that had been imposed on him.

[9] At the beginning of 1344, John attempted to exchange Nidda for the city of Neustadt, which had belonged to the County until Engelbert sold it to Mainz in 1294, in order to round out his territory in Ziegenhain and reconnect his estates on the Schwalm with those on the Wohra.