Many associations that were founded in Wiesbaden and other German cities from the 19th century onwards to care for the poor, the sick, neglected children, women who had recently given birth and "morally endangered" women can be traced back to female initiatives. As early as 1814, women in Wiesbaden came together to alleviate the hardship caused by the revolutionary and liberation wars; the Wiesbaden Women's Association emerged from this in 1818, although it did not adopt its own statutes until 1844. Around 1900, its aims included finding jobs for unemployed women and providing support for poor families, the sick and the over-indebted poor. The Maidens' Association also had a considerable age, setting up a childcare facility in 1835. In 1839, thanks to generous donations, including from the ducal family, the association was able to move into its own house, where so-called house children now lived and were cared for on a permanent basis.

One reaction to the increasing employment of women and mothers was the founding of the Wiesbaden Crèche Association in 1907, which took in children aged 6 weeks to 3 years from mothers from the poorest classes. Among the 40 or so women's associations that can be counted up to the beginning of the First World War were many local and branch associations of larger, nationally active organizations, e.g. the Protestant and Catholic churches or the Israelite synagogue community and the German Red Cross. The most influential women's association in Wiesbaden with the largest number of members was the branch of the Verband Vaterländischer Frauenvereine (Association of Patriotic Women's Associations) founded in 1869. According to its statutes, it cared for the wounded in times of war and the sick in times of peace and maintained maternity clinics, crèches, kindergartens and public kitchens as well as community nursing stations. The association had been recognized as a charitable foundation since 1904.

A major impetus for the founding of women's associations in the 19th century was the increasing professional activity of women, which went hand in hand with greater mobility. Several associations, some of them church-based, set themselves the goal of protecting the young women who came to the spa town as maids, bookkeepers or governesses and nannies from "moral challenges", providing them with inexpensive housing and meaningful leisure activities or protecting them from fraudulent recruiters. Founded in 1877, the branch of the "Friends of Young Girls" supported young girls who had to earn a living abroad. The association "Heimat Haus zu den Bergen" for single women and girls of better social standing, which opened its doors in Kapellenstraße in 1894, was also associated with the "Freundinnen". The aim of this association was to provide friendly accommodation and good food for saleswomen and bookkeepers employed in Wiesbaden, as well as shelter and protection against moral dangers and exploitation by employment agencies for girls from the upper classes without jobs.

From 1896, the Catholic Marienbund St. Bonifatius looked after young girls who had left school and protected girls who had moved here from abroad and were working in commercial and industrial professions. Similar goals were pursued by the Protestant girls' home, which began operating in 1889 with a girls' hostel and domestic school, as well as the "Girls' and Women's Group for Social Aid Work", which was founded in 1900 and was affiliated to the Women's Education and Women's Studies Association. At least three women were to be on the board. Lectures on areas of female social work and tours of Wiesbaden welfare facilities were offered.

The "Klub Junger Mädchen" also wanted to offer its female members sociability and education. Founded in 1912 by the "Friends of Young Girls" association, the club offered saleswomen, civil servants and nannies further education courses, especially in English and French, social help, health promotion, spiritual deepening, social get-togethers and hikes in the Taunus. Also in 1912, the association "Erholungsstätte für Heimarbeiterinnen" was founded, which opened a small home in Kloppenheim in 1913. Other professional organizations such as the "Association of Female Commercial and Office Workers" and the "Teachers' Association for Nassau" founded by Elise Kirchner were added after the First World War.

One focus of the charitable work of the Wiesbaden women's associations was caring for women who had recently given birth, for poor, abandoned or neglected children, for female prisoners and for elderly single but impoverished ladies from the upper classes. The Marienverein, founded in 1889, was committed to orphanage pupils. The Verein zur Unterhaltung eines Wöchnerinnenasyls and the St. Elisabethen-Verein (founded in 1894 and 1908 respectively) took care of women who had recently given birth, and exclusively of blameless wives. So-called fallen women were the target group of the Catholic "Johannesstift Welfare Association for the Protection and Rescue of Morally Endangered Girls" and the local branch of the Catholic "Welfare Association for Girls, Women and Children".

In the later 1920s and 1930s, the range of women's associations expanded, particularly with regard to professional associations. These activities came to an end with the beginning of the Nazi dictatorship. After the Second World War, numerous women's associations were quickly founded or re-established.

The German-American Women's Club and the local chapter of the German Housewives' Association, which were founded four years after the end of the war, had a great impact. A year later, the local chapter of the German Women's Ring was founded, which aimed to provide civic education. Since 1968, in addition to denominational women's associations, professional associations and women's working groups of various political parties, organizations have been formed that campaign against violence and discrimination against women as well as for refugees, asylum seekers and AIDS patients. Women's service clubs such as Soroptimist International and Zonta are relatively new in Wiesbaden.

Betz, Sigrid: 40 Jahre Ortsverband Wiesbaden des Deutschen Hausfrauenbundes, Walluf 1989.

Handbook by and for women. Women's representative of the state capital Wiesbaden (ed.), Wiesbaden 1987.

Kalle, Fritz/Borgmann, Hanns: Die Wohlfahrtseinrichtungen Wiesbadens, 2nd edition, Wiesbaden 1914.

Wiesbaden Welfare Guide for the War Year 1916, Wiesbaden 1916.