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Gleiberg Castle with the surrounding village of Gleiberg is an eponymous part of Krofdorf-Gleiberg and belongs to the municipality of Wettenberg in the Gießen district in Hesse

The Konradiner already used the Gleiberg as the location of a castle. The castle may have been built by Otto, King Conrad 's brother , as a fortress against the Popponen .

Heribert von der Wetterau made the castle the residence of his county of Gleiberg in 949 . After his death, the castle passed to his son-in-law Frederick of Luxembourg , the founder of the Luxembourg House of Counts . The castle is believed to be the birthplace of Empress Kunigunde around 980.

In 1103, King Henry V conquered the castle and had it destroyed. Only after the second line of the Counts of Gleiberg split off from the Counts of Luxembourg was the castle rebuilt in the 12th century.

A well-known historical figure from the 12th century is Clementia von Gleiberg. In 1129 she founded the Augustinian monastery on the Schiffenberg near Giessen.

With the extinction of the Counts of Gleiberg in the late 12th century, the western half of the castle and the county came to Hartrad II von Merenberg. The eastern half of the castle and the county passed to the Counts Palatine of Tübingen . The Merenbergs were later able to acquire the eastern half of the castle and it became the seat of the Lords of Merenberg for 150 years.

After the Merenbergs died out with the death of Hartrad VI. the castle fell to the House of Nassau-Weilburg in the 14th century . It became the center of the "Land on the Lahn", but no longer had a residence function. 

During the Thirty Years' War , the castle was destroyed in 1646 by the troops of Landgravine Amalie Elisabeth von Hessen-Kassel . Since it was no longer of military importance, it was not rebuilt. On June 30, 1816, the castle was exchanged from the Duchy of Nassau to the Kingdom of Prussia .

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Gleiberg was often the target of protests by the student body of Gießen University. The “Zur Spießpforte” inn at the foot of the castle, which can be traced back to the 16th century, also became well-known. Since about 1860 it has been called “Zum Schwarzen Whale”. The Giessen Wingolf was founded here on August 15, 1852 .  According to tradition, the restaurant "Zum Schwarzen Whale" was in 1879 the founding restaurant of the singing club "Hermanus" Gleiberg, the oldest predecessor club of today's Gleiberg singing association. On May 7, 1870, the Gießen Free Students Association (today's Gießen fraternity Adelphia) was founded in the castle ruins.