During the Second World War, Wiesbaden was bombed by the Allies on the night of February 2 to 3, 1945. Although 570 people were killed and 28,000 lost their homes, the full effect expected by the Allies failed to materialize as the planned target area was missed.

The attack, which lasted around 50 minutes, began after a full alert at 23:00. The spa district was hit particularly hard: the Paulinenschlösschen, the Kurpark, the Kurhaus and the theater, the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten, the Marktkirche, the city palace, the town hall and the police headquarters were all badly damaged.

The files of the Wiesbaden police headquarters kept in the Hessian Main State Archives contain 250 pages of damage reports for this bombing raid. The water, gas and electricity lines had not yet been fully repaired by October 1945. The direct hit of an air mine into the lyceum next to the market church on Schloßplatz and the subsequent collapse became a deadly trap for many Wiesbaden residents who had used the massive building as an air raid shelter.

The contemporary witnesses reported on these terrible events during a discussion on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the air raid in Wiesbaden's town hall.

After the contemporary witnesses, Lord Mayor Diehl, historian Thomas Weichel and former British bombing navigator Harold Nash, moderated by Claus Seibel, agreed that such events should never be repeated, the guests signed the city's Golden Book.