Große Rüdesheimer Runde – hiking around Rüdesheim

Starting point: Burgstraße / Brömserburg car park
Logo: blue circled R on a white background
Described direction: clockwise
Refreshments: Restaurant am Niederwald, Rebenhaus
Train station: Rüdesheim (0.2 km to the starting point)

Anyone who sets out to experience the Große Rüdesheimer Runde will be rewarded with gorgeous views and sights. Most of the hiking trail leads over paved vineyard paths. There are stairs to overcome in three passages, once you reach a long section of natural forest path via a narrow path.

It starts at the Burgstraße parking lot on the Brömserburg. After the partial destruction in the Thirty Years' War and a long period of decay, the castle was rebuilt in a romanticized way at the beginning of the 19th century. Today a citizen consortium is trying to reopen the ensemble and invites to the castle garden on weekends in summer.

The first 200 meters up into the vineyards are very steep. At the next crossroad we turn left towards Assmannshausen. Shortly afterwards we reach a chapel. Here you have the option to visit the Ramstein viewpoint at the beginning of the tour (turn right) or to save the rest there for the end of the tour (continue straight ahead). After about a kilometer, both paths meet again.

Our way leads us through the Rüdesheim vineyards. Below the Rhine flows in the direction of Binger Loch, high above the Germania sits enthroned on its pedestal. We follow the hiking sign until we can look down on the Ehrenfels ruins from our path.

We follow the markings and reach Assmannshausen. The place is first attested in 1108. Numerous writers, poets, artists and composers have visited the place since the beginning of the 19th century. Today Assmanshausen is part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Site and a tourist magnet.

Our route leads us steadily downhill through the vineyards into the village and behind the church in the center of the village again directly up into the vineyards. Shortly afterwards we come to the lettering "Höllenberg". The world-famous red wine location has nothing to do with hell, but goes back to the Middle High German word “helda”, which describes a “steep slope”. Here you have a wonderful view of the Rhine Valley and the castles Rheinstein (directly opposite) and Reichenstein (above the Clemens Chapel on the banks of the Rhine).

Now we leave the Rhine Valley and hike straight into the Höllenberg. In this way, running parallel to the Klostersteig, we arrive at the König winery and shortly afterwards to a junction where we keep to the right and descend to Aulhausen. The former pottery was created as a clearing settlement.

Following the markings we come to the so-called sand avenue. It once connected the Geisenheim aristocratic residence of the Counts of Ostein with their hunting lodge, which is now the Hotel Jagdschloss. We cross the avenue using two stairs and continue on the other side to the street that leads from Rüdesheim to the hunting lodge. From here it is not far to the mighty Niederwald monument, which commemorates the “victorious uprising of the German people (in the war against the French in 1870/71) and the rebuilding of the German Empire”.

A wonderful area around the monument invites you to linger and offers a wonderful panoramic view.

We now take the stairs down to the vine house. Now we are back in the vineyards above Rüdesheim. Our hike leads us down to the Ramstein. From here there is another wonderful panoramic view. Now the last descent begins. It leads past another rest area (Ingelheimblick) down to the chapel that we already know from the beginning of the path. Now it is not far to the starting point at the Brömserburg.

Author: Godmother Heike Boos

The “Ramstein Loop” is a great addition to the tour. You can find it here: www.komoot.de/highlight/3785524