It had its first documentary mention as early as 866 when Abbot Ansbald of Prüm documented the donation of an estate in the village named Haganbahc in the Mayengau (the country around Mayen) by his monastery to the dowager Higilda.

Used for this would have been thorny shrubs such as hawthorn or dog rose, or thickly growing plants such as hornbeam, a sprig of which appears as a charge in the municipality's coat of arms.

In 1395, a document from Archbishop of Trier Werner records that he enfeoffed “Johann, the Lord at Daun” with a share of the court at Haenbach.

The two streets, Eulgemer Straße and Brunnenstraße, are even today perceived as a boundary of sorts, setting apart the Hinnewäldtje and the Ewwewäldtje, the local names for the lower and upper village respectively.

[1] The municipality's arms might be described thus: Vert an abbot's staff with sudarium and ensigned with a cross bottonnée bendwise Or between, in sinister chief, a hornbeam twig couped and leafed of three and, in dexter base, an urn, both argent.