The gloomy forecasts of some experts have not come true.

Despite all efforts, the romantic Middle Rhine Valley is still a long way from a blooming landscape.

After all, the bottom seems to have been passed - for example for viticulture, which characterizes the cultural landscape.

Cautious optimism is spreading.

The Federal Garden Show 2029 could become the long-awaited connecting element of the valley, even if the Middle Rhine Bridge hoped for by many will probably not have been built by then.

Oliver Bock

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Rheingau-Taunus district and for Wiesbaden.

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20 years ago, UNESCO declared the 67-kilometre-long river valley between Rüdesheim/Bingen and Koblenz a "World Heritage Site".

An award that is also an obligation.

Especially for the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, because with Rüdesheim and Lorch only the westernmost tip of Hesse extends into the World Heritage.

Initial considerations by the Hessian state government to include the entire Rheingau had no chance of success from the outset due to the resistance of most of the Rheingau municipalities, which feared for their planning sovereignty, and also because of the skepticism in the neighboring state.

The lengthy application procedure was initiated in 1996 at the urging of the then Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Kurt Beck (SPD).

But in the queue in front of the UNESCO committees, the Essen colliery Zollverein XII, the Dessau Garden Kingdom, the Bremen City Hall, the Dresden Elbe front and the old town of Regensburg were waiting for recognition.

"We don't want to turn the Middle Rhine Valley into a museum, but into a lively region" - that was the motto of the application, which was intended to appease all skeptics of the idea.

Economically, the valley is one of the disadvantaged regions

In June 2002, at its meeting in Budapest, UNESCO confirmed the "outstanding universal value" of the valley, which is lined with around 40 castles.

A year later, the certificates of recognition were ceremoniously handed over.

Since 2005, two federal states, five districts and almost 60 municipalities and associated municipalities have formed the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Association, which is intended to accompany, promote and coordinate the development.

A development that the economically weak valley urgently needed and still has.

Economically, it is still one of the disadvantaged regions of the country.

The population was steadily declining.

In the centers of municipalities such as Kaub, vacancies in the shops shaped the picture.

In addition, the railway noise had become the almost unbearable scourge of the valley.

And the viticulture that characterizes the landscape because of the steep slopes had experienced an unprecedented decline since the end of the 1970s: the area under vines had shrunk from more than 2000 to less than 500 hectares.

The Middle Rhine Valley presented itself to its guests as a romantically beautiful but economically depressed region.

One politician who, from a Hessian point of view, has helped shape the development of the past 20 years right from the start is the former World Heritage Head of Department Karl Ottes.

In his view, there is still no question of a flourishing region.

But in these two decades, a “sense of community” has spread in the valley, according to Ottes.

That is already significant progress.