Ernst Ludwig Theodor Schellenberg's request to establish Nassau's first retail bookshop in Wiesbaden was turned down by Prince Karl Wilhelm zu Nassau-Usingen in the spring of 1800 for fear of democratic upheavals.

With Karl Wilhelm's successor, Prince (later Duke) Friedrich August zu Nassau-Usingen, Schellenberg ran into an open door when he repeated his request in 1803. Wiesbaden's first assorted bookshop with an attached lending library was set up in two small rooms at the farmer Andreas Faust in Langgasse/corner of Webergasse. Classics such as Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, Uhland, Klopstock and Shakespeare could be borrowed or purchased. Knight and robber novels were particularly popular. Because of the high prices, light fiction was rarely bought, but was also borrowed by higher earners. In 1809, the bookshop moved to Langgasse, and in the same year it was awarded the prestigious title of "Court Bookshop".

The so-called Carlsbad Decrees, which introduced strict press censorship in Germany in 1819, put an end to the complete freedom of the press that existed in Nassau. Booksellers were prohibited from distributing unauthorized books under threat of punishment. However, it was almost impossible to control the postal route and smuggling of banned publications flourished, which found their way to readers in bookshops and lending libraries largely undisturbed.

To put a stop to this, Austria and Prussia founded the "Secret Police Association" in 1851, bypassing the German Bundestag. Alongside the press, bookshops in particular were under its watchful eye. Thanks to the so-called "Allgemeine Novitäten-Versendungs- Liste", which listed all bookshops that regularly stocked new publications, the police association had the addresses of all relevant bookshops. Of the Wiesbaden bookshops, Friedrich'sche, Wilhelm Friedrich's, Kreidel'sche, Ritter'sche, Wilhelm Roth's and Schellenberg'sche were under the secret observation of the police association.

Wiesbaden's second bookshop was founded around 1830 by Heinrich Ritter. The number of bookshops then increased steadily: in 1831 there were three, in 1838 four, in 1858 seven, in 1865 ten (Feller & Gecks, Wilhelm Friedrich, Jurany & Hensel, Christian Wilhelm Kreidel, Lazarus Levi, Christian Limbarth, Julius Niedner, Wilhelm Roth, August Schellenberg and C. Wagner) and by 1866 Wiesbaden had twelve bookshops for almost 27,000 inhabitants. In addition to Levi and Wagner, these were also active in publishing with their own publications.

The rapid increase in the number of bookshops is also an indicator of the cost development in book production. More efficient printing presses, revolutionary innovations in paper production and factory-like large-scale bookbinderies, which had taken the place of artisan bookbinders, caused the price of books to fall. The literacy of the population had also reached a high level.

August Schellenberg handed over his bookshop to Jacob Greiß in 1866, retaining the name and business premises, who in turn passed it on to Jurany & Hensel in 1869, who continued to run the bookshop until 1888. By 1900, the number of bookshops had risen to 24. Feller und Gecks at Langgasse 49 also sold engravings, etchings and photographs, ran a lending library and maintained a "Schönwissenschaftlicher Zeitschriften-Zirkel". The publishing bookshop Staadt, founded in 1878, published the Wiesbadener Volksbücher.

In the following years, a specialization can be observed, for example in foreign-language or technical literature.

In recent times, many of the old traditional bookshops have had to close their doors or have been "swallowed up" by chain stores. Feller and Gecks as well as Staadt were each able to celebrate their 125th anniversary, Schwaedt its 75th, but today these bookshops no longer exist and the overall number has also decreased. There were just under 40 bookshops in Wiesbaden in 2015.