Farther north in Gladenbach, mostly west–east through the centres of Runzhausen, Bellnhausen, Sinkershausen, Frohnhausen and Friebertshausen runs another river, the Allna, which flows onwards to Weimar, likewise emptying into the Lahn.

A gang of poor farmers and poachers robbed a money-bearing mail coach running between Gladenbach and Gießen in a narrow pass above a small brook called the Subach, making off with the then unheard-of sum of more than 10,000 Gulden.

These details and others are contained in a contemporary police report, which also laid the groundwork for the German made-for-TV film The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach (1971) by Volker Schlöndorff.

The lion is an emblem of the town's early affiliation with Hesse, and the saltire (X-shaped cross) stands for the influence wielded before this time by the Lords of Merenberg.

In 2004, there were four marches, declared legal but guarded by great police presence, by neo-Nazis from outside the town, which set off even bigger counterdemonstrations.