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Detrital zircon age spectra of Ediacaran paragneiss from the Rheic suture between the Rhenohercynian Zone and Saxothuringian Zone suggest that they originated from different parts of peri-Gondwana. The paragneiss from the Northern Phyllite Belt displays an age spectrum of detrital zircons with a high amount of Neoproterozoic (82%) and Mesoproterozoic zircons (11%) typical for Amazonian provenance, whereas the spectrum from the metagreywacke of the Odenwald (Mid-German Crystalline Zone) shows a Mesoproterozoic age gap which is correlated with the West African Craton. The metagreywacke of the Odenwald contains 20% Paleoproterozoic and 32% Archean zircons, whereas the paragneiss of the Northern Phyllite Belt (Wartenstein Crystalline) contains only 6% Paleoproterozoic and no Archean zircons. The paleoposition of the basement of Northern Phyllite Belt was proximal to the Avalonian magmatic arc of the London–Brabant high. The Armorican metagreywacke of the Odenwald occupied a distal position to a Neoproterozoic magmatic arc, probably in a back-arc basin related to the West African Craton. Such a U–Pb age spectrum of detrital zircons together with a Mesoproterozoic age gap is typical for sediments of Armorica in Europe during the Ediacaran to Carboniferous. Neoproterozoic igneous rocks extruded at 566 ± 2 Ma forming a volcano-clastic sequence of the Cadomian magmatic arc which is the wall rock of the Silurian to Carboniferous plutons of the entire West Odenwald. This is the first occurrence of an extensive Cadomian crystalline basement in the Mid-German Crystalline Zone. Metagranite dykes crosscut the foliation of the Cadomian para- and orthogneiss at 542 ± 3 Ma. The deformation and migmatization of the Cadomian basement are bracketed between 566 and 542 Ma. A similar late Cadomian event is known from the Bohemian Massif and the Armorican Massif. Large Cadomian plutons with an age around 540 Ma, like that of the northern Odenwald, are common for Armorica. Silurian to Devonian granitoids (434 ± 4 Ma, 411 ± 5 Ma) are witness to an active margin along the northern boundary of Armorica. The Cadomian basement of the Odenwald together with the Palaeozoic granitoids is overprinted by a high-grade metamorphism at 384 ± 4 Ma (U–Pb on zircon) and cooled down below ca. 500 °C at 370 Ma (K–Ar ages of amphibole; U–Pb on titanite). Such a combination of late Cadomian and early Variscan ages could be correlated with the Münchberger Nappe, the Tepla–Barrandian Unit, Central Armorican Domain and the Massif Central. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]