The town was (like the whole Burgenland until 1920/21) part of Hungary since the foundation of the kingdom in the year 1000. After World War I "Deutsch-Westungarn" (the Burgenland) became part of Austria when the Treaty of Trianon deprived Hungary of about 70% of the territory which it had held for more than nine centuries.
The actor Ludwig Stossel was born in Lockenhaus in 1883 and after emigrating to America appeared in a number of Hollywood films including Casablanca. Members of the Stossel family were part of a Jewish community in the village which existed until 1938. A memorial to those members of the Jewish community in Lockenhaus who were murdered in the Holocaust was unveiled in 2008.[3]