On July 23, 1981, a street was named after the aviation pioneer and air force officer Wolfgang von Gronau (1893-1977) in the Erbenheim district of Wiesbaden near the local airfield.

Wolfgang von Gronau was born in Berlin on February 25, 1893, the son of General of Artillery Hans von Gronau. He grew up in East Prussia and attended a grammar school. In 1911, he became a naval cadet at the Kiel Naval School. During the First World War, von Gronau served as a lieutenant and first lieutenant on various warships.

From 1915, von Gronau was deployed as a naval aviator in various staff and front-line positions. A year later, he was transferred to Warnemünde as a consultant to the seaplane testing and acceptance commission. Here von Gronau tested a gyro horizon, which marked the beginning of instrument flight. After the end of the First World War, von Gronau left the military with the rank of lieutenant captain.
In the post-war period, von Gronau managed his Schönwäldchen estate near Gilgenburg in East Prussia. Von Gronau was apparently only involved in politics for a short time. He was a member of the veterans' organization "Stahlhelm - Bund der Frontsoldaten" from 1923 to 1925.

In 1926, von Gronau took part in the "1st German Sea Flight Competition" in Warnemünde, which he won. At the beginning of November 1926, he set a world record with a Heinkel 5 floatplane. Less than a month later, he became head of training and a member of the board of the newly founded German Commercial Flying School in Warnemünde.

From 1929, Wolfgang von Gronau achieved international fame as a pioneer of flight. In that year, he flew from Germany to Iceland in one day, which was an extraordinary feat of flying at the time. On August 18, 1930, von Gronau flew from Sylt via Iceland, Greenland and Labrador to New York in a Dornier Wal seaplane. This was the first Atlantic crossing with a flying boat. In New York, von Gronau was received by US President Hoover in the White House.

In 1932, Wolfgang von Gronau explored the so-called northern route in an airplane. He flew over the Greenland inland ice and discovered a new mountain range. The Danish government subsequently named this mountain range Gronau Nunatakker. His flight ended in Chicago. In the same year, Wolfgang von Gronau set off on a world flight, the crowning achievement of his flying career. In a Dornier Wal, he flew from Sylt across the Atlantic, the American and Asian continents with numerous stopovers before returning to Europe. On November 9, 1932, von Gronau reached the Dornier works on Lake Constance. He then flew back to List, where he was made an honorary citizen. He had flown a total of more than 44,000 kilometers.

After the National Socialists seized power, civil aviation was upgraded under the newly appointed Reich Aviation Minister Hermann Goring. Wolfgang von Gronau was appointed to the newly established authority and was responsible for the entire training system for sea pilots until 1934. Von Gronau joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933. From 1934 to 1938, he was chairman of the Aeroclub of Germany and vice-president of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
When the German Air Force was founded in 1936, von Gronau became a reserve officer in the armed forces and was promoted several times in this status. On January 1, 1939, von Gronau was reactivated and initially assigned to a training squadron with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Shortly before the start of the Second World War, von Gronau was appointed air force attaché at the German embassy in Tokyo. In June 1939, he also became air force attaché for the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Manchuria. As military attaché, he had to obtain a clear picture and judgment of the army of the receiving state. To this end, he was to maintain trustworthy relations with the relevant authorities as well as comradely and sociable relationships with certain groups of people. In addition, military attachés were to take part in exercises, visit military facilities and follow the specialist literature and the press. They had to report on their observations.

In his function in Japan, von Gronau was promoted further. At the end of the war, he had the rank of Major General d. R. and was decorated several times. After the capitulation of Germany, von Gronau was interned and was taken prisoner of war by the Americans after the Japanese surrender. He returned from this to Germany in 1947.

In the post-war period, he worked as a representative of a North American aircraft factory and devoted himself to farming on his farm on Lake Chiemsee. In 1955, Wolfgang von Gronau wrote an autobiography entitled "Weltflieger" about his experiences as an aviation pioneer and air force attaché. Gronau had already published travel memoirs in the 1930s. In the 1955 book, he described his world flight in 1932 in particular.

He died on March 17, 1977 in Frasdorf. Streets in various towns have been named after Wolfgang von Gronau. In List on the island of Sylt, where von Gronau is an honorary citizen, he was given an honorary grave.

Due to his memberships in the NSDAP and, before 1933, in the "Stahlhelm - Bund der Frontsoldaten" as a nationalist group and his function as an air force attaché as a military-diplomatic office, which he exercised in Japan, the closest ally of the German Reich, the Historical Commission appointed by resolution of the City Council in 2020 to review traffic areas, buildings and facilities named after people in the state capital of Wiesbaden recommended the contextualization of Gronaustraße.