American President John F. Kennedy's visit to Wiesbaden on June 25, 1963 was originally intended for the American armed forces stationed here. The provisional program from the beginning of May initially only included a visit to the Air Force headquarters and an overnight stay in the US Air Force Hotel General von Steuben, built in 1956 and now the Dorint Hotel. However, the Hessian state government was able to persuade the American side to hold a reception in the Kurhaus. In order to give the US President a proper welcome on his way from the Steuben Hotel to the Kurhaus, 100,000 flags were procured, printed with the Star-Spangled Banner on the front and the colors of the Federal Republic of Germany or Hesse on the back.

No one could have imagined the tremendous enthusiasm that greeted Kennedy in the state capital on June 25. It would not have been necessary to mobilize the Wiesbaden schoolchildren from the 7th grade onwards to form a trellis along the route to the Kurhaus. At 6:20 p.m., the President's helicopter landed in front of the Steuben Hotel, where 10,000 cheering people awaited him. Wiesbaden turned out to be a "cauldron of enthusiasm", according to the Wiesbadener Kurier. After a short break and a conversation with Vice Chancellor Ludwig Erhard at the Steuben Hotel, the US President started his triumphal procession in an open Lincoln at around 7:30 p.m. through the lane of over 100,000 citizens along Friedrich-Ebert-Allee and Wilhelmstraße.

When the President arrived, tumultuous scenes took place in front of the Kurhaus, where another 30,000 people were crowded. Only an increased police contingent and the deployment of mounted police were able to prevent the enthusiastic crowd from breaking through the barriers. Against this backdrop, the presidential reception in the Kurhaus, which was decorated with 20,000 flowers, almost became a waste of time. The more than 400 invited guests, including 76 high-ranking Americans from the military, government and business, were only able to enjoy presidential proximity for a good 30 minutes. Following the welcome address by Prime Minister Georg-August Zinn, the entry in the city's Golden Book and countless "shake hands", Kennedy left "his" reception for the Steuben Hotel at around 8:30 p.m., not without a final bon mot to crown the evening: when he leaves the White House, he wants to leave a letter for his successor to open in his hour of greatest depression. It would contain Kennedy's personal advice: "Visit Germany!".

After a short night in the Steuben Hotel, Kennedy set off for Berlin on June 26, 1963. He took advantage of the continuation of his trip to Germany in a US Air Force plane from Wiesbaden-Erbenheim to visit the US Air Force stationed there. The US President's stay at the Erbenheim military airport also had a commemorative political dimension. Kennedy symbolically reaffirmed the guarantee that the USA would remain in Berlin, as the Berlin Airlift had started from this location exactly 15 years earlier to the day.

Under the eyes of several thousand Americans at the airfield and numerous Wiesbaden onlookers, Kennedy was bid farewell with military honors after his arrival at 8:25 am. The ceremony, including the parade formations of the squadrons of American military aircraft thundering over the airfield, lasted only a few minutes. At around 8:45 a.m., Kennedy boarded his special plane, waved a brief farewell from the escalator and set off on his journey to Berlin.