In 1109, Karbach had its first documentary mention of sorts when the Quintenach estate, which lay within what are now Karbach's municipal limits, was mentioned along with another estate named Hirzenach in a document from Pope Paschal II when he donated them to the Siegburg Abbey with the proviso that a monastery be built there.

The Lords of Ehrenburg were then in turn enfeoffed with the territory, which they held until 1666, when their rightful successors, the Barons of Clodt, took over, themselves holding it until 1803.

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Per pale azure a bend Or and argent Saint Quentin in a chainmail shirt of the second and a mantle gules holding in his dexter hand a palmleaf vert and in his sinister a skewer.

The German blazon leaves certain information out that nonetheless manifests itself in the resulting arms, namely the speckles on the bend (diagonal stripe) and the tinctures of the skewer and Saint Quentin himself.

A few small retailers and service-sector businesses offer the needed services; anything further must be sought in nearby Emmelshausen.