The old town centre is found in the valley of the Simmerbach, while the newer neighbourhoods are spread over the surrounding heights.

Of interest to visitors are Simmern's value as a nature and leisure site, and its central location right near three rivers, the Moselle, the Rhine and the Nahe, each about 25 km away, allowing easy day trips to other nearby places.

There are seemingly mentions before the 11th century, but these cannot be definitively linked to the town, or most likely refer to the Simmerbach, the local river.

The weekly and yearly markets were soon drawing dealers throughout the Hunsrück to town, leading to flourishing trade and business.

He ruled in Simmern from 1509 to 1557, was humanistically and artistically trained, had the first printshop in the town built and promoted the arts, particularly sculpture.

He was followed by Friedrich III, called “the Pious”, who converted to Calvinism in 1563 and played a leading role in Imperial politics.

Friedrich IV's son, Friedrich V was elected King of Bohemia – Bohemia was an elective monarchy – but soon ran afoul of the forces arrayed against him, notably the Catholic League and the Holy Roman Emperor himself, and not only was he forced to flee Bohemia in the face of these forces after only a year on the Bohemian throne (earning himself the derisive nickname “Winter King”), but he also saw to it that the Electorate of the Palatinate, too, was gripped in the throes of the Thirty Years' War.

With the family Schenk von Schmidtburg's help, the Carmelites founded a presence in town, and together with the Kreuznach Capuchins, took over pastoral duties in the Oberamt.

It was by the regular patrols of the newly founded National Gendarmerie that Johannes Bückler, later a well known robber and often called “Schinderhannes”, was caught, although at this time he was nothing more than a small-time livestock thief in the Hunsrück and the northern Palatinate.

In 1799 he spent half a year locked up in the tower that now bears his nickname, the Schinderhannesturm, in Simmern, from which he managed to escape.

In 1804, Emperor Napoleon I spent some time in the town, which in the meantime had acquired a municipal administration run according to French law.

The town's situation in the 19th century, outside the centres of industrialization, was not easy, and much the less so as of 1845 with the potato blight outbreak and the attendant bad harvests, which drove many inhabitants to seek a better life in the New World.

In the First World War, Simmern was an important support base for troops marching to the Western Front.

In March 1945, Simmern was occupied by American troops, but was later assigned along with the rest of the Palatinate to the French zone of occupation.

The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:[5] Simmern's mayor is Dr. Andreas Nikolay, and his deputies are Peter Mumbauer, Karl-Heinz Augustin and Michael Becker.

The charge above the line of partition is the Palatine Lion, and the “bendy lozengy” pattern (that is, slanted diamonds) is the Wittelsbachs’ armorial bearing.

[7] Simmern fosters partnerships with the following places: The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[12] Saint Joseph's Catholic Church, built in the 18th century, has ceiling frescoes worth seeing.

The cultural centre at Schloss Simmern has its Hunsrückmuseum with an exhibit by Friedrich Karl Ströher (Hunsrück painter) and the town library.

Beginning on the town's western outskirts is the Schinderhannes-Radweg (cycle path), running from there through the Külztal (Külzbach valley) by way of Kastellaun to Emmelshausen.

The railway is currently in disuse, but plans are being made to reactivate a portion of it (including the section in Simmern) in order to connect Frankfurt-Hahn Airport with the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region.

The reopening of Frankfurt-Hahn Airport (20 km away) for commercial aviation and the widening of Bundesstrasse B-50 to four lanes have given the district and the town even greater economic potential for the future.

Future plans include a possible extension of the Autobahn A 60 to facilitate traffic from the Frankfurt metropolitan area to Simmern and the Benelux countries.

Among the town's biggest employers are the following: ZF Boge Elastmetall (roughly 600 employees), CompAir (compressed air and gas systems, roughly 500 employees), the firm Pfefferkorn (Sekt stopper maker), Deutsche Fertighaus Holding (prefabricated buildings), SchwörerHaus KG (works for finishing “Kastell”-brand solid-construction houses, basements, ceilings and prefabricated concrete articles), Zischka Textilpflege (laundry service), the Hunsrück-Klinik and DHL, with a logistical centre.