The term FLUXUS was chosen around 1960 by George Maciunas for a magazine he was planning. FLUXUS ("the flowing") sought to dissolve the boundary between art and life and between the arts - music, visual arts, dance, theater, poetry - as well as the relationship between performers and audience. Spontaneity and humor played an essential role as possibilities for a fairer world. There was neither a specific FLUXUS style nor a specific FLUXUS group, but rather an international network of artist friends who came together for actions and festivals.

Preliminary forms of FLUXUS took place at the end of the 1950s in New York in the form of happenings. Concerts in John Cage's class introduced the audience to new sound experiences. Maciunas organized the "musica antiqua et nova" festival in his AG Gallery in 1961. While working as a designer for the Air Force in Wiesbaden-Erbenheim in 1961, Maciunas established contacts with the artistic avant-garde in the Rhineland and Paris.

The first "FLUXUS*International Festival of New Music" took place from September 1 to 23, 1962 in the auditorium of the then still municipal museum in Wiesbaden and caused considerable irritation among the press and audience. Performers included Maciunas, Dick Higgins, Benjamin Patterson, who later settled in Wiesbaden, Wolf Vostell, Nam June Paik and Emmett Williams. FLUXUS festivals followed in Düsseldorf (with the participation of Joseph Beuys), Amsterdam, The Hague and Nice. In 1976, the Flux-Labyrinth was shown at the Akademie der Künste Berlin.

Wiesbaden sees itself as the cradle of the movement and has continuously honored it with major exhibitions. In 1982, the collectors Ute and Michael Berger organized the show "1962 Wiesbaden FLUXUS 1982"; in 1986, their FLUXEUM was created in a former Catholic church in Erbenheim.

The year 1992 was taken as the occasion for "FLUXUS DA CAPO", curated by René Block, who was also responsible for the next major exhibition "40 Years: FLUXUS and the Consequences" as part of the Wiesbaden Summer of Art 2002. In 2008, the city established the FOLLOW FLUXUS scholarship. In 2012, "FLUXUS 50" celebrated the anniversary of this pioneering art movement for an entire year.