The planning of residential districts during the German Empire differs characteristically from that of the Weimar Republic. The districts created during the Empire breathed the spirit of class society with its highly developed need for visually recognizable social distinction: behind the magnificent façades of the front buildings, where the upper classes lived, the considerably more unadorned rear buildings concealed the cramped and lightless apartments of the proletariat. Urban planners developed precise measurements for the distances between the front and rear buildings, for the storey heights and the rear courtyards, which corresponded to the need for social differentiation among the residents of the front buildings. The spirit of Wilhelminian class society was also reflected in the different entrances, elaborately designed for the front buildings, narrow and low for the rear buildings.

Housing construction in the 1920s was completely different. After the First World War, there was a great shortage of affordable housing not only in Wiesbaden. The housing shortage was also exacerbated by the occupying powers present until 1930, for whose members additional, adequate housing was needed after existing housing had already been confiscated on a large scale. In order to meet the housing shortage, the numerous so-called French houses were built under the direction of the municipal building authority from 1920/21. For non-commissioned officers, for example, the houses at Klarenthaler Strasse 7-17 were built in the Westend and for officers in the Dichterviertel the prestigious corner houses at Klopstockstrasse 14/Wielandstrasse 16 (1920) and Klopstockstrasse 3/Schenkendorffstrasse 8 (1922), the latter designed by Friedrich Werz.

On the other hand, large-scale social housing projects were implemented to alleviate the housing shortage for the rest of the population. Extensive blocks of rented apartments were built in the Westend, Rheingauviertel and Waldstraße, among others, and more modest ones in the Dichterviertel. Municipal housing construction measures in the Westend included the houses at Klarenthaler Straße 19-23 (1922/23), the closure of the block between Eckernfördestraße and Westerwaldstraße (1925/26) and the closed perimeter block development between Klarenthaler Straße, Blumenthalstraße, Manteuffelstraße and Elsässer Straße (from 1928). The serious change in housing construction can be observed particularly at Elsässer Platz: To the north-east of the square, the narrow buildings of the imperial era can be seen, to the south-west the spacious buildings of the Weimar Republic, which promised light, air and sunshine.

The rear buildings have often been replaced by spacious lawns that can be used by all residents. The façades do not proclaim the social status of the residents, but emphasize their social equality in the uniformity of their design.

Blocks of flats were also built on both sides of the Loreleiring in the Rheingauviertel, including the narrow rectangular block between the Loreleiring and Marcobrunner, Oestricher and Kiedricher Strasse (from 1926) to the north-east and the buildings on Kauber and Oestricher Strasse to the south-west in simple, austere forms by Heinrich and Rudolf Dörr (1930-32). In the Dichterviertel, existing gaps were primarily built on, such as the upper Klopstockstraße with the houses 25b-29 and Hebbelstraße 7 (1926/27). The block between Wielandstrasse, Klopstockstrasse and Rückertstrasse was completed with the houses at Eichendorffstrasse 1-7 and Rückertstrasse 5 (1926). The "Hinter den Bögen" housing estate was built to the north-east of Waldstraße between Baumstraße and Jägerstraße in 1928/29.

The buildings constructed in the 1920s predominantly follow a traditionalist, historicizing architectural style that conveys the transition from the tenement buildings of the imperial era to social housing after the First World War. The decorative ornamentation of the building façades, e.g. in supraports, door and window frames, is generally extremely restrained. In addition to echoes of Art Nouveau, expressionist motifs can also be found. Modern functionalism played no role in Wiesbaden's social housing.