There weren't many parties interested in the castle after Konrad's death, due to the superstition surrounding his activities, so inevitably it lay derelict. It eventually fell to ruin in the late 18th Century. However, its influence did not end with its inhabitants.

Poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe lived in the area and created Faust . He is believed to have given a reading of his early Faust in the shadow of the castle to the Darmstadt Circle of Sensibles, a sort of 'dead poets society' of which he was a member.

Over the centuries, the course of the Rhine has changed considerably, but in 1814 the castle could be seen from the river, and many people believe that Mary Shelley gained inspiration from an exploration of the area with her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, while cruising on the Rhine. Their guide would doubtless have told them tales of Konrad Dippel and his dark science.