The administrative district of Wiesbaden was founded on March 22, 1867 after a brief interim administration by civil commissioners and comprised the areas annexed by Prussia: Duchy of Nassau, City of Frankfurt am Main, Amt Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, District of Biedenkopf, Local District of Rödelheim, the former Grand Ducal part of Niederursel and the north-western part of the District of Giessen. On December 7, 1868, it was united with the administrative district of Kassel to form the province of Hesse-Nassau.

The government in Wiesbaden was a central authority of the state administration with a focus on internal, church and school administration as well as financial, domain and forestry administration. Until 1945, it was based in the building at Luisenstraße 13 in Wiesbaden, which was erected as the Nassau state ministry building. Although popular with civil servants, the Wiesbaden administrative district did not play a central role in the state's perception of Prussia. Only very few of the district presidents had any significant ties to the region or to the social and cultural life of the city of Wiesbaden. Most of them remained in office for far too short a time for them to become more at home.

The layout of the administrative district remained constant for a long time - apart from the addition of part of the city district of Frankfurt in 1885. However, the occupation of the area and the establishment of the 30 km bridgeheads from Mainz to Koblenz turned it into an emergency area after 1918. Administration also proved to be very difficult in the first few years after the First World War. In 1926, Fechenheim was transferred to the administrative district of Wiesbaden, and in 1932 the district of Wetzlar was added, while the area around Battenberg was ceded.

During the Nazi dictatorship, the government came under the strong influence of Gauleiter Jacob Sprenger. In 1944, plans for administrative reorganization in the form of the "Reichsgaue" became acute. The province of Hesse-Nassau was divided up. It was headed by the Gauleiter, whose deputy was the Regierungspräsident. At this time, the districts of Hanau, Gelnhausen and Schlüchtern, which had previously belonged to the administrative district of Kassel, became part of the administrative district of Wiesbaden and remained there after 1945.

After the occupation by American troops, there was a brief interim until the Wiesbaden government was re-established on 01.05.1945. Until the establishment of a Greater Hesse state government, it carried out comprehensive governmental and administrative tasks in this district under the former Reichsrundfunkkommissar Hans Bredow. Geographically, the government district of Wiesbaden comprised the previous areas without the districts of Oberwesterwald, Unterwesterwald, Unterlahn and St. Goarshausen, which were ceded to the French occupation zone. The Mainz suburbs of Kastel, Kostheim and Amöneburg were newly added.

Following the establishment of a state government, the three Hessian regional councils in Darmstadt, Kassel and Wiesbaden were assigned the function of a central state authority between the state government and local authorities. The areas of internal administration, education and teaching, economy and transport, agriculture and - until 1954 - the Higher Insurance Office were significantly affected. In 1956, a department for forestry administration was added.

From 1948, the Regional Council used 15 different buildings in Wiesbaden before it was dissolved in 1968 and assigned to the Darmstadt administrative district. It no longer occupied the building erected specifically for this purpose on Friedrich-Ebert-Allee in Wiesbaden, which is why it has been used by the Hessian Ministry of the Interior since 1968. Today, the files are kept in the Hessian Main State Archive in Wiesbaden.