Kaifenheim lies in the Vordereifel (“Further Eifel”), more or less halfway between Mayen and Cochem in the northern part of the district.

The document reads: “1005 Aug 13 King Henry II donated to the Adalbert Foundation in Aachen, among other things, KIVENHEIM in the Gau of Meinvelt of the County of Bechelius.” More than three centuries later, in 1334, Kaifenheim became a parish seat.

Over the centuries, history has recorded the following forms: CAUPONIACUM, Kievenheim (in the Middle Ages), Kavenheim, Kevenheim, Kewenheim, Keyfenheim, Keiffenheim.

A 1745 Visitation report from the Rural Chapter of Ochtendung, Archdeaconry of Carden, states: Keyfenheim, Item nullum cathedratium; 3 ½ schilling Koltsche secundum antigum registrum Item communitas in ultima sinode novem summeren avence, et campanator unum pullum et summerum avence et manipulum luminis, et inde habet expensas .

All livestock was driven out of the village to a meadow, nowadays known as Altenstall, while the people, who had stopped burying their dead because it led to the spread of the illness, turned to Saint Wendelin for help in their time of need.

Wendelin apparently helped, but the people reneged on their promise and built no chapel, whereupon Kaifenheim was stricken with an even worse livestock disease, which all but killed off all the village's cattle.

It was also in 1815, on the night of 17 February, that Father Jakob Weber was beset by a band of marauding robbers at the rectory who smothered him with a pillow.

On 14 April 1841 (Easter Tuesday), the foundation stone was laid for the building of the parish church that still stands today.

Tragically, during construction, on 30 May 1841, at about 11 o’clock in the morning, four building workers on the project were killed in an accident when a scaffold collapsed, sending five men to the ground 50 Fuß (local feet – about 17 m) below.

On 3 August 1844, Father Nalbach celebrated Mass for the first time in the new church, whose building costs had amounted to somewhere between 12,000 and 13,000 Thaler.

On 6 June 1865 (Whit Monday) at 10 o’clock in the evening, almost a fourth of the village burnt down in a devastating fire that saw 17 houses and 18 barns destroyed.

In 1912, Josef Fuhrmann, who had emigrated to Iowa with his family in 1868, came back to visit friends and kin in Kaifenheim and Gamlen.

This was also lucky for Kaifenheim, for years after Josef Fuhrmann's return to Iowa, he helped greatly with the installation of a new High Altar at the local church.

Other infrastructure improvements included upgrades to all village streets in 1926 and the beginning of a postal bus service to Kaifenheim in 1930.

According to eyewitnesses, the burning aircraft circled over Kaifenheim, losing an engine, which fell down into a garden on Bachstraße after bouncing off a roof.

The bomber then crashed in a meadow near the outlying centre of Besch, bursting into flames easily owing to the load of white phosphorus incendiary bombs that it had been carrying.

The proceeds went to help with the fund for the restoration of the Schwanenkirche (“Swan Church”) in Roes, which had been destroyed in 1944 in an air raid.