Merkelbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a community belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

The municipal council is made up of 10 council members, including the extraofficial mayor (Bürgermeister), who were elected in a majority vote in a municipal election on 13 June 2004.

The community lies right on Bundesstraße 413, leading from Bendorf (near Koblenz) to Hachenburg.

The nearest InterCityExpress stop is the railway station at Montabaur on the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed rail line.

The community is linked by bus connections every two hours to Hachenburg and the InterCityExpress station at Montabaur.