After the occupation of the parts of the Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine by French Revolutionary troops in 1794, in 1801 the Treaty of Lunéville awarded the ruined castle to the French; in 1804 they offered it for sale. In 1815 the Congress of Vienna resulted in its passing into the possession of the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1828 the then Crown Prince Frederick William acquired it in order to give it to his wife Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria; she was a Wittelsbach princess. In association with a visit by her in the 1850s, large parts of the toppling walls were cleared, and the rubble spread over the courtyard and used to fill the moat. All that remained was the wall of the "palas" on the courtyard side, the ring wall on the Steeg valley side to the height of the chemin de ronde and a small piece of the inner or shield wall.