Floods are one of the most critical environmental threats in Central Europe. In Germany, they are responsible for more than half of the economic damage caused by environmental hazards. The magnitude of the 2021 Ahr flood has far exceeded what was forecast in previous flood hazard assessments. This was due to a significant underestimation of hazards, as the former hydrological models considered instrumental discharge records exclusively. Because the recording period only began in the second half of the 20th century, high-magnitude flood events prior to that period were not considered in flood hazard assessments. Historical flood events from written sources were also not included in official flood hazard assessments. In this study, we show the importance of geomorphological records from Ahr flood deposits for reconstructing past high-magnitude flood events. Our chemo- and lithostratigraphical analysis of four recovered cores from the Ahr floodplain shows that centennial- to millennial-scale high-energy flood deposits are not the exception but the rule. The four floodplain sediment cores record the catastrophic flood of 2021 and the two historical floods of 1804 and 1910, as well as a previously unidentified flood event dated approximately to the end of the 5th century A.D. In addition, the geomorphological analysis in combination with near-surface geophysical prospection shows that the Ahr floodplain is dominated by high-energy flood deposits and that low to medium-magnitude flood events are not preserved in the floodplain stratigraphy. The fluvial geomorphological record proves that the 2021 flood event is not an exception in the Ahr floodplain stratigraphy. In fact, at least three other flood events have been identified in the last 1,500 years that, based on lithostratigraphic parameters, had a comparable magnitude. The results document the high potential of floodplain archives for reconstructing high-magnitude flood events in Central European rivers, allowing a systematic reassessment in terms of the occurrence and frequency of high-magnitude flood events. The occurrence of the large floods in the Ahr valley does not show any clear coupling with the Central European hydroclimatic history. However, what is noticeable is that the historically documented high-magnitude Ahr floods occur during the summer season, which is in parallel with high atmospheric moisture loads.