Rheinwolle Cologne: Turning wool from the banks of the Rhine into stylish rugs

This rug has a lot going for it: it’s thick, cosy, and its soft off-white tone works with almost any interior style. But what truly sets it apart is its material. The main yarn is made from 100 per cent virgin wool from sheep grazing along the banks of the Rhine – bringing a piece of Cologne straight into your home.

“Unfortunately, there’s still very little awareness of natural materials and their benefits,” says Martin Hoffmann, who founded Rheinwolle, literally “Rhine wool”, in 2024. “Sheep’s wool, for example, is incredibly durable, helps regulate moisture and can even filter pollutants from the air.” So a wool rug doesn’t just look good, it actively improves the indoor climate, says the architect.

How a chance encounter started it all

While studying architecture, Martin had already begun exploring product design and sustainability – a topic that stayed with him. It was a chance encounter that brought him into conversation with shepherd Thomas Schneider, who moves his flock along the meadows of the Rhine. That’s how their collaboration began.

Until now, the shepherd had barely been able to make use of the wool. His Bentheim sheep, an old and endangered domestic breed, are hardy and undemanding, making them well suited to landscape conservation. Their relatively coarse wool, however, isn’t suitable for clothing. As a result, he had struggled for years to find buyers.

So how can this valuable raw material, which is essentially a by-product of sheep farming, be put to good use? Martin began researching and eventually found a rug-weaving mill in Hungary. While Bentheim wool may not be suitable for fine jumpers, it is ideal for rugs. Before it can be processed further, however, the wool has to be cleaned after shearing and then spun into yarn. Unfortunately, there are no wool-washing facilities left in Germany, but there is one in Belgium, just around a 1.5-hour drive from Cologne.

Rheinwolle from Cologne: from sheep to rug

After the sheep are sheared in May, a van loaded with wool travels straight from the shepherd’s farm to Verviers in Belgium. Hoffmann buys at least 500 kilograms of wool from the shepherd; at the washing facility, it is cleaned of grease and dirt, losing around half its weight in the process. A Bavarian craft business then turns the cleaned wool into yarn and sends it on to a weaving mill in Hungary.

Because the production process involves several steps and the sheep are only sheared once a year, delivery times are relatively long. Customers order their rug from Rheinwolle after the shearing in May, and it is delivered in December. In return, they receive a durable natural product that can also be recycled. “Once the rug is no longer usable, the material can be repurposed into new products, such as upholstery or insulation,” says Martin Hoffmann.

A natural material with a future, made in Cologne

So far, the project has been well received. “I’m very pleased – last year we processed one tonne of wool,” says Hoffmann. His aim is to buy the shepherd’s entire clip in future, amounting to around 1.5 tonnes. That would be enough to produce roughly 300 square metres of rug.

In the near future, the founder would also like to develop new products – ideally in collaboration with other designers and universities. Possible options include pieces made from dyed wool, for example in indigo or rosé shades created using avocado skins. There is already a collaboration with textile designer Sanja Lulei: she combines Rheinwolle yarn with other materials to create artistic one-off pieces in her studio.

Anyone interested in a rug can place an order online with Rheinwolle in Cologne. At the moment, there are still some remaining stocks from the 2025 wool batch available, with a shortened delivery time of around eight weeks.