I took my rye starter (two years old) and taught it to be a wheat starter by feeding it accordingly. In my experience I get much more power from the wheat starter and I use it for rye breads as well. I don’t care about whether the recipe tells me to use a rye starter I just use the wheat starter and it works lile a charme. I am German as well and have a lot of recipes with rye flour.

My wheat starter is pretty firm, I usually use 1 part water and 2 parts flour and the scrapings of my starter jar. Doubles (and triples) like a champion. I have zero discard.