The name Lustenau derives from a document from January 24 887, signed by the Carolingian king Charles the Fat, with the title "Lustenauua curti regali," meaning "Royal Court of Lustenau." In 1395 the Counts of Werdenberg pledged the Zwingenstein fortress and Lustenau to the Knights of Ems, and in 1526 the pledge was converted into a final purchase. After the male line of the Hohenems family died out in 1759, a decade-long dispute over ownership of Lustenau developed between Maria Theresa of Austria on the one hand and the Hohenems heiress Maria Rebekka on the other.