Clockwise from the north, Martinstein's neighbours are the municipalities of Simmertal, Weiler bei Monzingen and Merxheim, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district.

At a narrowing in the Nahe valley and an old river crossing, a small settlement arose in the High Middle Ages within the greater municipal area of Simmern unter Dhaun (nowadays called Simmertal).

The pledgings ended in 1655 when Archbishop Johann Philipp of Mainz of the House of Schönborn redeemed them and transferred the lordly rights to his family.

In 1620, during the Thirty Years' War, the residence was taken by the Spaniards, whose general, Marquis Ambrogio Spinola (1569–1630), mentioned the house in his despatch and even had a drawing of it made.

In 1716, the Margraves of Baden bought all the lordly rights held by the Knights of Schönborn, doing the same with the Ebersberg holdings in 1779 and assigning all to the Badish Amt of Naumburg.

[4] Before the Nazi era, a few Jewish families lived in Martinstein, but it is believed that they attended synagogue in neighbouring Simmertal (then known as Simmern unter Dhaun).

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Gules an Imperial orb azure encircled Or and ensigned with a cross pattée of the same, on a chief embattled of four argent a sword of the second hilted and pommelled of the third.

In 1340, Archbishops Heinrich of Mainz and Baldwin of Trier built a castle as a defence against Waldgrave Johann of Dhaun, to put the Nahe valley off limits to him.

The number of merlons in the crenellations is specifically four, as prescribed in the blazon (“Zinnenschnitt mit vier Zinnen”/“embattled of four”), to stand for the four Ortsteile (constituent communities) into which the municipality was subdivided until 1967.

The charge in the main field, the globus cruciger (“orb” in heraldry; Reichsapfel, meaning “Imperial Apple”, in German), stands as a symbol of the local Martinstein lordship's Imperial-knightly status during feudal times.