On December 11, 1994, the citizens of Wiesbaden voted on the structural use and design of the Dern site, the city's "problem child" for over 100 years. So far, all development plans had failed. As early as 1876, a local councillor complained that the site was far too valuable to be used solely as a storage area. After the Second World War, the site was extended by the leveling of rubble on Friedrichstrasse and used as a parking lot. To clear the way for development, the municipal authorities decided in 1991 to build an underground parking garage, which was inaugurated in August 1993. At the same time, an urban planning ideas competition was announced. The design by the Hamburg architects Schweger + Partner was chosen from 73 proposals. A citizens' initiative mobilized against this. In the first citizens' vote of its kind in Wiesbaden, 85 percent voted against the "Schweger building": The square therefore remained empty for the time being, apart from the above-ground ticket booths of the underground parking garage, and was merely paved and planted.