The municipality lies in a hollow north of the Soonwald – a heavily wooded section of the west-central Hunsrück – and Bundesstraße 50, halfway between Simmern to the west and Rheinböllen to the east, with each roughly 5 km (3 mi) away.

A bronze axe from the Tumulus culture (about 1000 BC), however, bears witness to earlier human habitation.

In 1006, the church at Mörschbach built by the nobleman Thidrich was consecrated by Archbishop of Mainz Willigis and the tithing district was defined.

This noble house appeared with Count Bruno in 1081, then holding a county in what is now the Netherlands on the Meuse's left bank between Roermond and Venlo.

These were further granted in fief to the Lords of Braunshorn, although in 1184, under Archbishop Philip of Heinsberg, these were returned to the Cologne church.

Count Palatine Rudolf I (1294–1319), who had given his bride as a wedding present 10,000 Marks at Fürstenberg Castle and Castle Stahlberg near Steeg (today an outlying centre of Bacharach), Kaub and a few other Palatine holdings, ended up at odds with the Count of Kessel over the holdings on the Middle Rhine and in the Hunsrück.

On 29 September 1295, Walram, then still the Cathedral Provost at Münster, empowered his notary Theoderich to settle the dispute with the Count Palatine, which had arisen when the Count Palatine had taken ownership of Kessel holdings at Steeg, and also the villages of Schnorbach and Ebschied along with their attendant forests and other appurtenances.

In this agreement, he forwent his four vineyards and an arboretum at Steeg, and the villages of Schnorbach and Ebschied, against a payment of 86 Marks.

As this monastery never truly flourished, Rupert I, Elector Palatine began exercising the patronage rights over Schnorbach himself once again in 1368.

Here lay what in the 1614 tithe report was called “Herrenfeld” (“Lords’ Field”, but perhaps a corruption of Hirzenfeld, from Middle High German Hirz, meaning “hart”; the Modern High German word is Hirsch), from which, along with a few other fields, the parish drew two thirds of the tithes.

The parish priest was also entitled to tithes in parts of Riesweiler, Argenthal, Altweidelbach, Wahlbach and Mörschbach.

Within Altweidelbach's and Wahlbach's municipal areas, the lands on the side of the old stone road nearer Schnorbach were likely part of the tithing district, while in Mörschbach there was a triangular area bordered on two sides by the old stone road and on the other by the Paterbach.

The main part of the village's tithes went to the leadership of the Kumbd Convent, who at that time were paying the priests and the teachers their salaries.

Grouped into the area bishop's region was Argenthal with Ellern, Wahlbach, Altweidelbach, Glashütte and Thiergarten.

Schnorbach is, in Catholic terms, a parish seat, to which the municipalities of Argenthal, Ellern and Wahlbach are also tied.

What follows is a table of the municipality's population figures for selected years since the early 19th century (each time at 31 December): The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[4] The municipality's cultural life is characterized by the sport club Germania Schnorbach with offerings in leisure sports (gymnastics, dancing, hiking) and the women's club.