The Wettin ancestral castle that gave its name was first mentioned in a document in 961 as "civitas Vitin" in the Nudzici district. It belonged to the domain of Margrave Rikdag. At the end of the 10th century, his relative Dedi from the House of Buzik was enfeoffed with the castle and the associated county. It linked the possessions of those early "Wettins" around Zörbig with those around Eilenburg Thimo, Dedi's grandson, was the first to bear the name of Count of Wettin.

In 1217 the county fell to the Wettin line of the Counts of Brehna.

When the last of these sold it to the archbishopric of Magdeburg in 1288, one of the oldest possessions, which also had a certain symbolic value because of its name, was permanently lost to the House of Wettin. The county shared the further fate of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg. The Wettin office finally became a royal (Prussian) domain in 1701.