The Schottenring gained a following as a popular venue for club events through the late 1920s and 1930s. Its course wound through the Vogelsberg highlands, characterised by the tree-lined fast corners and varying surface conditions that would later make it a safety concern at the highest levels of racing.
The track's first post-war event in 1947 attracted 90,000 spectators, reflecting the intensity of pent-up enthusiasm for motorsport in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. The Schottenring became a regular venue on the German post-war racing calendar, featuring in the contests between BMW-engined specials that defined that era of West German competition. Drivers including Roland Mall, Willi Krakau, and Otto Schöpflin raced at the circuit in the early post-war seasons. In the 1947 two-litre sports car race, Mall finished fourth with a BMW. In 1948 Krakau appeared at Schotten with a handsome BMW special and engaged in an early lead-changing battle with Karl Kling's Veritas RS before his engine failed on the third lap. The circuit was noted for its numerous blind corners, which handicapped streamlined or enclosing bodywork designs on its twisty layout.
The track's most historically significant event came in 1953 when it was selected to host the German motorcycle Grand Prix. The selection was partly the result of a compromise between Germany's two governing motorsport bodies, the DMV and the ADAC. The choice proved immediately contentious. Even by the standards of the day, the Schottenring had never been regarded as a particularly safe circuit. Following a pre-practice inspection, the factory teams from AJS, Norton, Gilera, and Moto Guzzi unanimously declared the track too narrow to safely accommodate modern 350 cc and 500 cc machinery. Fast corners were bordered by trees, and the track surface at the most hazardous points was considered dangerously slippery. The factories concluded it would be disastrous to run a championship event there and withdrew before racing had even begun.
Faced with the unprecedented departure of the majority of major works teams before the event could start, FIM officials concluded the only practical way forward was to allow the meeting to continue in reduced form. Only the 125 cc and 250 cc classes were scored as rounds of the World Motorcycle Championship; the 350 cc and 500 cc races proceeded as non-championship events. It was an unusual and embarrassing outcome for the host venue, underlining the circuit's fundamental limitations when measured against international safety standards of the period.
Racing at the Schottenring in its full championship form was discontinued after 1956. The venue continued in use on a shortened version of the circuit, hosting rallies, classic bike events, and hillclimbing long after its years as an international race circuit came to an end. Its website remained active into the modern era, reflecting the continuation of organised activity at the site.