It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kastellaun, whose seat is in the like-named town.

The municipality lies in the Hunsrück on a hilltop among fields and meadows at an average elevation of 430 m above sea level between the Külzbach and Bieberbach valleys.

The municipal area measures 2.39 km² of which 76% is given over to agricultural uses and 12% each is built up or wooded.

In 1850, the clergyman Bartels from Alterkülz founded a boys’ home in Michelbach, and in 1851 it was moved to the wetlands between Simmern and Nannhausen, where the first building of the Schmiedelanstalten (“Wetland Institutes”) was built.

Since 1946, Michelbach has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate.