According to its name, Oberböhmsdorf is a German settlement, although the land division here is also mixed German and Slavic. The assumption that the village was founded by Bohemians who were expelled because of their faith is a matter of legend. The village was first mentioned in a document in 1333. At that time, a Burghold von Kospoth lent some farmers in Oberböhmsdorf to the Teutonic Knights of Schleiz.

In 1362, Henry the Elder of Gera pledged interest from 2 farms to the monastery of the Holy Cross in Saalburg. From 1402 onwards, the manor was owned by the patrician von Plauen family from Schleiz. As late as 1545, a Thieme von Plauen is mentioned as having lived in Oberböhmsdorf. After this family died out, the Rußwurm zu Tanna family inherited the property. They sold it to the burgrave's chancellor Friedrich Traubot in 1562. In 1573 it was acquired by Hans Moritz von Kauffung auf Kirschkau, whose son sold it to Magister Christian Wolf zu Saalburg and the citizen Friedrich Behr. 1636 - 1640 it was owned by the von Steinsdorfs, 1663 - 1672 by Frau Obrist Gerhardt, then by the Kospoths, the von der Oelsnitzs, the von Brandensteins, the von Metzschs and the von Schönfelds. In 1795 it was bought by the owner of the Mühltroffer Herrenmühle Johann Paul Porst, from whose heirs the Reußen bought it in 1819 for 21,400 thalers and merged it with the Schleiz chamber estate. In 1919, it became the property of the Reuss people's state. The current church was built in 1665 / 66 on the ruins of the old, burnt-down church and was extended and embellished several times. Oberböhmsdorf has had its own cemetery since 1866. Before that, the deceased were buried in the mountain cemetery in Schleiz, hence the name "Leichenweg" for the footpath that leads past the Hainteichen.

Oberböhmsdorf was given its own school in 1651, with the last building dating back to 1922. In 1847, the teacher Johann Georg Meyer founded the first school for the deaf and dumb in Reußenland here, from which the facilities for the care and education of people with multiple hearing impairments in Schleiz would subsequently develop. In the 1950s, however, the school in Oberböhmsdorf was finally closed and the children were taught in nearby Schleiz. Mining was once carried out in the area around the village. However, the antimony mines "Alexander" and "Halber Mond" as well as the iron mine "Luise" were finally closed in 1954. Many Oberböhmsdorf residents worked in the Mühltroff spinning mill. As Oberböhmsdorf was surrounded by large woodlands where many of its inhabitants worked, the people of Oberböhmsdorf used to be teasingly referred to as "Waldäste".