In the first half of the 19th century, the middle classes in German cities documented their claim to social and cultural leadership by assuming responsibility for certain tasks by founding associations. These included music societies for the performance of larger choral works.

In Wiesbaden, Carl Bogler founded a "Gesangverein" with the first joint performance of his women's and men's choirs in December 1847. The occasion was a memorial celebration for the recently deceased Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, whose works formed a focal point of the program in the following years.

In 1854, the "Gesangverein" was renamed the "Cäcilienverein" for clear identification. In the decade from 1855 to 1865, when the theater's music director, Johann Baptist Hagen, led the choir, its significance for the city was at its greatest. The Cäcilienverein wanted to use the theater orchestra to make classical music - not just choral music - an integral part of the cultural offerings in Wiesbaden and thereby educate the citizens to a higher aesthetic awareness. This self-education of the bourgeoisie was served by four club concerts a year, which could be subscribed to. The venues were the Hotel Adler and, from 1860, the Kurhaus; three of the four dates were initially outside the spa season from April to September. There were mixed programs with symphonies, soloist concerts, opera arias, but also complete oratorios.

The annexation of Nassau by Prussia in 1866 led to the closure of the casino and a reorientation of the cultural offerings. The Cäcilienverein was integrated into the spa operations and gained a new permanent partner in the form of the spa orchestra founded in 1873. It was now only the organizer of choral concerts, at which it performed itself. Under artistic director Karl d'Ester, there were highlights such as the first complete performance of Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" in 1877, works by Max Bruch conducted by the composer and Beethoven's "Missa solemnis". Concerts on Good Friday - from 1877 to 1907 in the Marktkirche - became a permanent fixture. As the orchestra was reliant on concert income, the familiar works by Haydn and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy were performed more frequently. Nevertheless, new pieces by Berlioz or Verdi's Requiem were introduced to the Wiesbaden audience. Personal relationships existed with composers such as Bernhard Ernst Scholz and Théodore Gouvy.

In 1858 and 1891, the Cäcilienverein organized the Middle Rhine Music Festival in Wiesbaden and took part in other music festivals as a guest. The choir also took part in charity concerts and performances in connection with public events such as inaugurations and the unveiling of monuments.

Carl Schuricht's appointment as municipal music director in 1912 marked the beginning of a new era for the Kurorchester and the Cäcilienverein, which he conducted intermittently from 1913 to 1937. Schuricht brought Mahler's symphonies to Wiesbaden and also expanded the choir's repertoire to include Bruckner's choral works and the "Mass of Life" by Frederick Delius. He increased the artistic significance and charisma of the choir.

After the war and inflation, private financing of concerts was no longer possible in Wiesbaden, as in many German cities. The association was therefore taken over by the city council in 1924. The series of club concerts was dissolved and the choral performances were integrated into the cycle concerts of the spa orchestra. In 1938, the Cäcilienverein was renamed the "Choir of the City of Wiesbaden". In June 1934, it took part in the "First German Tonkünstlerfest im 3. Reich in Wiesbaden". From 1933 to 1944, it included works by composers in its program that corresponded to the Nazi state's desire for pieces with medieval texts or about rural life close to nature (Karl Schäfer "Die Kelter", Oskar von Pander "Des Lebens Lied"). However, he also continued to perform sacred works. Works by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Mahler, which had been a focus of the choir's work, could not be performed during the National Socialist era, but were immediately reintroduced to the program when the choir restarted in 1947.

In the post-war period, the choir mainly performed the standard classical works, and since the merger of the spa and theater orchestras in 1959, once again in collaboration with the theater. In the 1963 contract between the city, state and state theater, the overall artistic direction and responsibility for the choir was transferred to the respective general music director of the Hessian State Theater. From 1973 to 1988, General Music Director Siegfried Köhler brought about a broadening of the repertoire to include modern works such as Honegger's "Johanna auf dem Scheiterhaufen" and Britten's "War Requiem". Prokofiev's cantata "Alexander Nevsky" and Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms were added later. As a partner of the Hessian State Orchestra for choral concerts and the only choir in Wiesbaden with extensive experience in secular choral works and symphonies, especially from the Romantic period onwards, the Choir of the City of Wiesbaden continues to be an important factor in musical life. It also gives guest performances at home and abroad. The choir comprises around 70 amateur singers and has been conducted by Wolfgang Rodi since 1992, who was succeeded by Gabriel Dessauer in 2010. Christoph Stiller, conductor and choir director of the Staatstheater, has been the choir director since April 2011.