The Marktkeller was built in 1900 by architect Felix Genzmer as a vaulted cellar complex with a square floor plan and a floor area of around 1,300 square meters. Genzmer also had the idea of holding the Wiesbaden market on the site behind the New Town Hall and providing it with transportable roofs that could be stored in the market cellar along with the goods of the market vendors. After years of discussion about the location of the market and its design in the last third of the 19th century, the decision was made against a permanent market hall and in favor of the location behind the New Town Hall.

Market cellar without market

As the market flourished, the market cellar was also used by shoppers until the 1950s. However, when the market returned to the original market square between the town hall and the castle, the cellar lost its function. Rented only as a storage area by gardener Ringwald in the 1970s, the market cellar remained unused for decades. In 1999, it was converted into a "small market hall" and renovated. In 2012, however, due to insufficient demand in the underground market hall, its use was changed from a sales outlet to a meeting place, although there were no structural changes to its external appearance.

Ultimately, however, even this use as an event space did not meet with the desired demand and so, at the beginning of 2015, the idea was born to give the Wiesbaden City Museum a home in the Marktkeller. The museum had rented the rooms of the former Café Kühns in Ellenbogengasse as a showcase for the Stadtmuseum until the end of 2015. However, it was clear from the outset that the lease would expire at the end of 2015 due to the planned demolition of the building.

With the failure of the new museum building planned by architect Helmut Jahn on the Wilhelmstraße 1 site at the end of 2014, it became clear that the Stadtmuseum Wiesbaden would no longer have any premises available for exhibitions and events at the beginning of 2016. With the opening of the "sam - Stadtmuseum am Markt" in the Marktkeller on September 11, 2016, the museum found a new space and the Marktkeller found a new use.