The Pagenstecher family can be traced back to the 15th century in the Westphalian town of Warendorf. Since the 1570s, a distinction has been made between an older and a younger line. The "Wiesbaden branch" also belongs to the older line. Many members of the widely ramified family lived and worked in Wiesbaden in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The progenitor of the important representatives of the family for Wiesbaden was Ernst Alexander Otto Cornelius Pagenstecher (1697-1753), born in Groningen, who was appointed rector of the high school in Herborn in 1725.