In the late 1800's, Hudson Taylor traveled throughout Europe, garnering support for the work of the China Inland Mission. In Germany, news of Taylor's work so excited Rev. Heinrich Coerper that he founded the German Support Branch of the China Inland Mission in 1899. The little society grew quickly, sending out its first missionary to Hunan province within a year. In 1902, the mission was given a new home in the Black Forest town of Bad Liebenzell - and thus became Liebenzell Mission.

The work grew rapidly and spread to other fields in Asia and the Pacific: Manus Island, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Japan and Palau. By the 1930's, over 80 missionaries were involved in full time ministry overseas. The outbreak of World War II disrupted the work as missionaries were expelled, imprisoned or killed. In the late 1930s, a missionary couple returning to ministry in China became stranded in America as war broke out in Europe and Asia. Henry and Anna Zimmermann united several small groups of faithful mission supporters in the U.S. and founded Liebenzell USA in 1941. They purchased an old mansion and farm in rural northwestern New Jersey to welcome displaced German missionaries arriving in America, seeking refuge from the war. Within ten years, the first U.S. missionary was sent out to Manus Island, Papua New Guinea; others soon followed.

Liebenzell's work expanded to Taiwan when missionaries were forced to leave China in the early 1950s. Over the last 30 years, Liebenzell has entered new fields of service in Africa, Europe, and South America. Today about 250 career missionaries serve with Liebenzell Mission International through its seven independent branches. Many more short-term volunteers also assist in taking the Gospel to all the world.