Women's and girls' education in Wiesbaden began at the start of the 19th century with the "private girls' school" founded by Carl Philipp Salomo Schellenberg, which opened its doors on November 14, 1805 in the old "town school" on Mauritiusplatz. A short time later, Duke Friedrich August zu Nassau approved the founding of a "Latin and Girls' School" at the same location. This "Friedrichschule", inaugurated on August 6, 1807, was under the supervision of the Protestant church.

In the following years, numerous new schools were founded which were either exclusively for female pupils or at least included their education in their concept. These included the private educational establishment opened by Johannes de Laspée in 1809, the "female school establishment" set up by the widow Magdalene Friedel in 1811 and the Bönig Institute in Friedrichstraße. Over the course of the 19th century, further girls' schools were established, mostly in the form of boarding schools or "boarding houses".

The pupils, who came from Germany and abroad to the up-and-coming Wiesbaden, usually lived in groups of 16 to 18 girls in elegant villas along Freseniusstrasse, Kapellenstrasse or Rheinstrasse, e.g. in the "Pensionat Bernhardt", the "Pensionat Halliwick", the "Pensionat und Höherer Töchterschule Hermine Wolff" or the "Scholz'sches Institut". They were taught German, English and French, world and art history, music, painting, geography, civics and science. Of course, typically female subjects were also taught, including pedagogy, which prepared them for raising children, and handicrafts, including the "basic principles of domesticity, order and punctuality".

The School Edict of 24.03.1817 standardized the previously largely disorganized education system in Nassau, introducing compulsory schooling for boys and girls as well as simultaneous schooling. Female pupils were initially not permitted to attend the new secondary schools. The "Töchterschule", which was closed in 1830 despite the protests of parents, was not continued until the "Städtische Höhere Töchterschule" wRheinstrasse, e.g. in the "Pensionat Bernhardt", the "Pensionat Halliwick", the "Pensionat und Höherer Töchterschule Hermine Wolff" or the "Scholz'sches Institut". They were taught German, English and French, world and art history, music, painting, geography, civics and science. Of course, typically female subjects were also taught, including pedagogy, which prepared them for raising children, and handicrafts, including the "basic principles of domesticity, order and punctuality".

The School Edict of 24.03.1817 standardized the previously largely disorganized education system in Nassau, introducing compulsory schooling for boys and girls as well as simultaneous schooling. Female pupils were initially not permitted to attend the new secondary schools. The "Töchterschule", which was closed in 1830 despite the protests of parents, was not continued until the "Städtische Höhere Töchterschule" was founded in 1847, which gave girls from the educated classes access to higher education.

In 1866, five female teachers and seven male teachers taught a total of 270 girls, including 21 from abroad. They attended the lyceum, as the institution for "higher daughters" was now called, until the age of 16. They could then transfer to further types of school, such as the Oberlyzeum, which consisted of the "Frauenschule" or the "Höhere Lehrerinnenseminar". The "women's school" provided a general education with a domestic and economic focus. Attending the "Women's Teachers' Seminar" qualified graduates to teach at a girls' secondary school. From 1901, the lyceum had an upper school and a primary school teachers' seminar as well as its own school building on Schlossplatz right next to the Marktkirche.

Between 1908 and 1909, a new building was erected on Dotzheimer Straße, the so-called Graue Haus. In 1909, it was decided to found the so-called Lyzeum II (since 1955 "Elly-Heuss-Schule"), whose newly built school building on Boseplatz (today Platz der Deutschen Einheit) was occupied in May 1916 and also housed the Oberlyzeum from Schlossplatz. Lyceum II underwent numerous changes until 1930. In 1921, the scientific upper lyceum, which had been common at the school until then, was replaced by a "women's school" and an affiliated seminar for technology and gymnastics teachers as well as kindergarten teachers, nursery school teachers and housekeepers and placed under the management of the Schlossplatz School. In 1927, the scientific upper secondary school returned to Boseplatz, and from 1930 it was then possible for girls to take the school-leaving examination at the - now so-called - Städtisches Oberlyzeum, which opened the way to university.

However, it was not only "girls' secondary education" that underwent major changes during these 60 years. The so-called middle-class school, which was aimed at the middle class, also underwent a transformation. Attendance at the "middle schools" established in 1858 qualified young women to train as trade school or drawing teachers as well as for entry into the middle careers of the state, railroad, postal or telegraph administration.

During the Nazi era, the requirements of the state and the party dominated all teaching. In addition to the "national education" of girls, particular emphasis was placed on their physical training and the development of practical skills. The goal of female education was the "future mother", who lived primarily for the household and family. The school was therefore primarily intended to teach domestic knowledge and skills, as well as caring for babies, the sick, animals and plants. The traditional "Institut St. Maria" of the Catholic women's order of the "Englische Fräulein", which had been founded in 1893 in a villa in Mainzer Straße and prepared girls for university, was closed by the National Socialists in 1939. Until March 1945, classes were held in Lyzeum II, albeit hampered by the effects of the war. Lyceum I on Schlossplatz, on the other hand, was almost completely destroyed in the bombing raid on February 2 and 3, 1945 and was not rebuilt after the war.

Since the reopening of the schools in the fall of 1945, young women had the choice between a social science, new language, mathematics and science or music-oriented school education. The "Elly-Heuss-Schule" (EHS), as the school was now called, remained a girls-only school. Coeducation was not introduced until Easter 1966. In 1971, the other girls' schools followed suit. The principle of coeducation had become established. The same applied to the idea of giving girls and boys the same education in line with their abilities and talents.