The Golden Book was created in 1901 according to designs by the city architect Felix Genzmer and was donated by the Wiesbaden goldsmiths and the master bookbinder Petmecky.

The names of the donors are listed on a small plaque on the inside of the 35 kg work. The front is decorated with an overall view of Wiesbaden embossed in silver and the city's coat of arms. The lower part of the cover shows the goddess of health, Hygieia, as a symbol of Wiesbaden's healing springs, framed by the coats of arms of the German Empire and Prussia and a decorative border with fruit tendrils in heavily gilded silver. The inside of the book cover is covered with blue silk embroidered with golden lilies.

The actual content begins with a report on the construction of the new town hall, the decoration of the banqueting hall and the foundation of the Golden Book. This is followed by the names of the members of the deputation responsible for this as well as a list of the representatives of the people in the magistrate and city council at the time and the honorary citizens of Wiesbaden.

The first prominent visitor to the city was Kaiser Wilhelm II on May 13, 1902. Two other European monarchs, King Oskar II of Sweden and Norway and King Christian IX of Denmark, signed the list in the same year. Politicians, military leaders, scientists, representatives from business and technology as well as artists, musicians and sportsmen signed the Golden Book in the following decades, including several Nazi greats, the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, President John F. Kennedy, Mikhail Gorbachev and Yasser Arafat. The first woman to sign the Golden Book was Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, who visited Wiesbaden on May 20, 1965.

Since 2012, the Golden Book has also been available online on the city's official website.