Art Nouveau arrived in Wiesbaden with the ideas of the Lebensreform social reform movement in the late nineteenth century, appearing as the aesthetic expression of an enlightened social elite.

Wiesbaden attracted several artists working in Art Nouveau, including Egon Josef Kossuth and Hans Christiansen. The latter moved from Darmstadt to Wilhelmstraße 17, Wiesbaden, in 1910 or 1911. For his rented flat, he designed a golden and a black room, today housed respectively in Darmstadt's Institut Mathildenhöhe and Cologne's Museum für Angewandte Kunst.

Impressive Art Nouveau façades abound in the town, such as on the villa at Bingertstrasse 10 (1901). Designed by Hungarian architect Josef Beitscher, it is Wiesbaden patron Ferdinand Wolfgang Neess's former residence. Hans Christiansen created another outstanding façade for the villa at Dambachtal 20 (1902), designed by Friedrich Werz. Certain apartment buildings in Wiesbaden's then-new housing estates also display interesting Art Nouveau details.

Various hotels in the Art Nouveau style were built in the town centre, such as the Hansa sited on the corner of Bahnhofstraße and Rheinstraße, the Goldener Brunnen on Goldgasse, the Palasthotel at Kranzplatz, and the Saalburg on Saalgasse. Likewise, a number of commercial Art Nouveau buildings were built on Kirchgasse and Langgasse, the main thoroughfare of the time. These include the department stores Kaufhaus Bormass (1905) on the corner of Mauritiusplatz and Kirchgasse 45, and Warenhaus Blumenthal (1907) on Kirchgasse 39–41, as well as the fashion store Modehaus M. Schneider (1908) on Kirchgasse 35–37. Sited on Langgasse, opposite the Römertor, the business and production building for the newspaper Wiesbadener Tagblatt (1909), was described as a true "newspaper palace".

In 1907, Friedrich von Thiersch completed the new spa Neues Kurhaus in Wiesbaden. Fritz Erler created a figurative painting frieze for the Muschelsaal there, which was initially controversial. Within a few years, however, Art Nouveau was being accepted in municipal buildings.

In 1909, in Biebrich – then a separate town, but since 1926 a Wiesbaden borough – Paul Bonatz completed a monumental building for the sparkling wine producer Otto Henkell. Among other artists involved, Fritz Behn created a relief for this project, Hans Beat Wieland, a painting frieze, and Hans Christiansen produced glass designs on the theme of wine.

The same year, an impressive mourning hall and crematorium was erected on the grounds of the new southern cemetery under August O. Pauly's direction. Its interior was designed by Wiesbaden artist Hans Völcker. Later, when Wiesbaden's first public baths, the Kaiser-Friedrich-Bad, opened in 1913, Völcker's painted figurative frieze was enthusiastically received. That year too, he created ornamental mural paintings in the public library (1913) at what is now Rheinstraße 55–57, and the city museum (1915), built by Theodor Fischer, nowadays the Landesmuseum at Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 2.

Last but by no means least, the Lutherkirche, a monumental church designed by Friedrich Pützer (1910), boasts spectacular Art Nouveau décor throughout created by Ernst Riegel.

A stroll through Wiesbaden rewards you richly with a trove of spectacular Art Nouveau treasures.