In 1957, the secondary school on Boseplatz was named after the writer and playwright Gerhart Hauptmann by decision of the Wiesbaden City Council and the Hessian Ministry of Education. Due to the general lack of space, which particularly affected secondary schools in Wiesbaden, some classes at the Gerhart Hauptmann School moved into rooms at the Friedrich-List School, which was still located on Manteuffelstraße, in 1961. After moving to the new building in Welfenstraße, the Gerhart Hauptmann School was relocated completely to the Manteuffelstraße site. It is still there today.

Gerhart Hauptmann was born on November 15, 1862, the son of a hotel owner in Bad Salzbrunn, Silesia. After attending the village school, he transferred to the secondary school in Breslau and then completed an agricultural apprenticeship. Between 1880 and 1882, Hauptmann attended the School of Arts and Crafts in Breslau to train as a sculptor.

However, he broke off this training as well as his subsequent studies in Jena, Dresden and Berlin, where Hauptmann studied philosophy, literary history, history and drawing. Between 1883 and 1884, he settled in Rome as a sculptor. However, his work was not commercially successful.

From 1889 onwards, the future Nobel Prize winner wrote dramas. The play "The Weavers" was published in 1892. The play, which deals with the Silesian Weavers' Revolt of 1844, made Hauptmann world-famous in the following decades. He wrote further socially critical dramas. At the beginning of the 20th century, Hauptmann had already received numerous honors: he was awarded honorary doctorates from the universities of Oxford (1905), Leipzig (1909), Prague (1921) and later Columbia University, New York (1932). Hauptmann was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1912.

Hauptmann was skeptical of the German Empire and Wilhelm II and was always keen to be seen as an apolitical artist. Politically, Hauptmann was characterized by a cultural nationalism in which the "German nation" played a central role. In 1905, Hauptmann joined the Society for Racial Hygiene founded by Alfred Poetz. This society wanted to found and establish "racial hygiene" as a science. Hauptmann and Poetz were childhood friends. By analyzing Hauptmann's diaries and correspondence, historical research was able to establish that the relationship with Poetz had cooled by the early 1930s and that the playwright had distanced himself ideologically from his childhood friend.

Hauptmann welcomed the First World War and published war poems such as "Komm, wir wollen sterben gehen". Hauptmann also welcomed Germany's expansionist policy and did not acknowledge Germany's war guilt.

After the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Weimar Republic, Hauptmann quickly adapted to the new political circumstances. He declared his support for the republic in 1918, but declined a request to run for the office of Reich President.

After the National Socialists "seized power" in 1933, Hauptmann was once again prepared to quickly adapt to the new political circumstances. In March, he signed a lapel of the members of the poetry section of the Prussian Academy of Arts, who declared their loyalty to the new government. On May 1, 1933, which the National Socialists had declared a public holiday, Hauptmann had the swastika flag hoisted on his estate on Hiddensee. In October 1933, he advocated Germany's withdrawal from the League of Nations.

Hauptmann continued to be enthusiastic about Hitler, whom he described as a "world genius" at the height of the Wehrmacht's military successes.
The writer was also convinced by Hitler's manifesto "Mein Kampf", but also provided the book with critical comments. Hauptmann regarded the book burnings carried out by the National Socialists as silliness. His presence at the opening of the Reich Chamber of Culture in November 1933 was also seen as an open declaration of loyalty to the regime. However, he did not sign the "Pledge of Allegiance of German Writers to Hitler". Hauptmann's public declarations of loyalty and his admiration for Hitler were countered by his critical attitude towards National Socialist cultural and racial policies. The Nazi regime was also ambivalent towards the playwright. In 1933, streets and schools bearing his name were renamed. Hauptmann's play "The Golden Harp" was performed on the "Day of German Art" at Hitler's request and integrated into the regime's staging. Meanwhile, other plays by Hauptmann were not allowed to be performed.

In 1944, Hauptmann was included on the Reich Ministry of Propaganda's special list of so-called "Gottbegnadeten". This list contained the names of German artists who were of great importance to the Nazi regime and placed them under protection. For example, they did not have to do military service.
Hauptmann was ambivalent about Judaism. On the one hand, he had numerous Jewish acquaintances and friends who urged him in vain to emigrate. Some of his friends also broke with Hauptmann because of his closeness to the National Socialists.

Hauptmann privately rejected the racial laws passed in the summer of 1935. Hauptmann also rejected the concept of "life unworthy of life" introduced by the National Socialists and the Nazi regime's "euthanasia campaigns" based on it. However, this rejection was not enough for him to take a public stand. Instead, Hauptmann tried to ignore the living conditions of the persecuted, especially the Jewish population. The introduction of the "Jewish star" in September 1941 caused outrage among Hauptmann.

The question of whether Hauptmann had financially supported Jewish acquaintances and friends is the subject of controversial debate among researchers. The dramas created by Hauptmann between 1933 and 1945 are characterized by a far-reaching political distance. The work "Die Finsternisse" is an exception. While, on the one hand, it dealt with Jewish fates with sympathy, Hauptmann used anti-Jewish stereotypes on the other. The play was not published and the original was destroyed in 1942 for fear of discovery.
Hauptmann publicly supported the Nazis' expansionist policies in various speeches and radio addresses between 1936 and 1942.

Overall, Hauptmann remained ambivalent about National Socialism, but neither publicly broke with the system nor did he use his international fame and reputation as a Nobel Prize winner to clearly distance himself from it.
After the collapse of the "Third Reich", Hauptmann had one last opportunity to welcome the new political situation. In October 1945, he received a visit from Johannes R. Becher, the president of the Cultural Association for the Democratic Renewal of Germany, in his Silesian hometown of Agnetendorf. Becher wanted to ask Hauptmann for help in rebuilding the cultural sector in the Soviet occupation zone. Hauptmann agreed to accept the honorary presidency of the Kulturbund. Shortly before leaving Silesia, Hauptmann died on June 6, 1946.

The historical commission appointed by the city council in 2020 to review public spaces, buildings and facilities named after people in the state capital of Wiesbaden recommended renaming the Gerhart Hauptmann School because of Hauptmann's signature on the lapel of the members of the poetry section of the Prussian Academy of Arts, with which he effectively supported the Nazi regime and made a visible commitment to National Socialism as a political movement and to the Nazi state. Hauptmann articulated the National Socialist ideology through public declarations of loyalty. He was also a member of the Reich Chamber of Culture for professional reasons and was active in a völkisch-nationalist group before 1933 through his membership of the Society for Racial Hygiene.

The Historical Commission made the recommendation for action in light of the fact that the institution in question was a school. It is also recommended that the school be included in a possible renaming process.