The call for "real-education" schools had become increasingly louder in the 18th century as the bourgeoisie grew stronger. Initially, departments for particularly gifted children were set up at the elementary schools in Wiesbaden. These developed into Realschulen, which did not offer lessons in Latin, but in French. Until 1858, this type of school in Wiesbaden was still linked to the Realgymnasium, but then became independent as a six-year "Mittelschule", which went beyond elementary education and was intended to enable children "to run a normal business or trade".

Children from the northern part of the city were assigned to the "Mittelschule auf dem Berg" (also known as the "Neue Schule"), which was opened in 1844, while those from the southern part of the city were assigned to the "Schule am Markt", which had become the home of the former "Realschule" in 1831. School fees were compulsory. In 1879, the Mittelschule am Markt moved to a new building in Rheinstraße. Due to the increasing enrolment figures, four "lower classes" returned to the "Schule am Markt" in 1881/82. They remained there until 1893/94 and formed the 3rd independent secondary school system in Wiesbaden, later moving to Luisenstraße. In 1896, the secondary schools were given starting classes (from the first school year), became nine grades and from then on taught a second, optional foreign language, English. In 1907, Wiesbaden had four secondary schools, whose pupil numbers rose from 2,510 (1905) to 2,901 (1908). In 1912, a fifth secondary school was added in Blumenthalstraße for 386 boys and girls. In 1921, the creation of elementary schools with four lower classes meant that the entry classes were abolished. From 01.06.1925 they were given six ascending classes, the 10th year became the final year.

In 1953, the secondary school on Riederberg moved out and the girls moved to the school built in 1916 on Lahnstraße, which housed one school for girls and one for boys. The girls' section was given the name "Droste-Hülshoff-Schule" in 1955, the boys' section "Albrecht-Dürer-Schule". In 1955, the "secondary school for girls" in Rheinstraße was renamed "Gustav-Freytag-Schule", while the "secondary school for boys" in the same building was called "Werner-von-Siemens-Schule".

Rising pupil numbers led to the founding of a sixth secondary school with four girls' classes at the then Realgymnasium für Mädchen (today: Elly-Heuss-Schule) on Boseplatz at the start of the school year on April 1, 1955; four boys' classes were added later. In 1956, this became the "Mittelschule am Boseplatz", from 1957 the "Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule", which moved to the Friedrich-List-Schule in 1960 and offered co-educational classes from 1961.

The name "Mittelschule" was replaced by the term "Realschule" in 1964. From 01.08.1972, the Gustav-Freytag-Schule was merged with the Werner-von-Siemens-Schule under the name of the latter. The Droste-Hülshoff and Albrecht Dürer schools also merged in the same year to form the co-educational "Albrecht Dürer School". The Realschule graduates with the so-called "Mittlerer Bildungsabschluss", later "Realschulabschluss". Since the 2004/05 school year, oral and written final examinations have been held, as in the whole of Hesse.

The Hauptschule was created at the end of the 1960s by separating the old elementary school into primary and lower secondary schools, whereby the upper secondary schools were combined as general secondary schools within the structured school system at lower secondary level. As a rule, pupils in grades five to nine were taught there. At some schools, a voluntary 10th year of lower secondary school was set up, which in exceptional cases can also be used to obtain a secondary school leaving certificate. From the 2004/05 school year, the Hauptschulabschluss is awarded after a final examination.

In Wiesbaden, Wolfram-von-Eschenbach-, Heinrich-von-Kleist- and Kastellstraßenschule have been independent Hauptschulen since the end of the 1960s. At some locations, such as the Ludwig-Beck-Schule am Gräselberg and the Adalbert-Stifter-Schule, the Hauptschule was combined with an elementary school. In 1926, two elementary school for boys and girls were built opposite each other on Hebbelstraße in the Dichterviertel to replace the "Volksschule am Gutenbergplatz" built in 1905, which had to be evacuated during the First World War and was subsequently occupied by occupying troops. The new school was given the name Wolfram-von-Eschenbach-Schule in 1963 and was converted into a secondary school with grades 5-9 and co-educational classes in 1967-69 and a voluntary 10th grade in the 1989/90 school year. The Heinrich-von-Kleist-Schule, which was occupied in 1913, was returned to its original purpose in 1931 after being used as a barracks and then occupied by occupying troops, but it was used once again as a makeshift barracks from 1936-38. Co-education also began here from Easter 1965. From 1969, the school was transformed into a pure secondary modern school and in 2004/05 began a pilot project for an integrated secondary modern and intermediate school. The Käthe Kollwitz School was opened in 1884 as Kastellstraßenschule. In 1960, it developed into an elementary school for boys and girls and was given its current name in 1963, after which it was purely a secondary modern school and, following a conversion, has been an integrated comprehensive school since September 1988. The Adalbert-Stifter-Schule, originally Siegfriedstraßenschule, which was built in 1949, extended in 1955 and 1963, received its current name in March 1956 and also offers a voluntary 10th year of secondary school. The same type of school also applied to the Ludwig-Beck-Schule on Gräselberg, which opened on October 12, 1964. It has been a pure elementary school since the 2009/10 school year.

Secondary schools also developed in the suburbs of Wiesbaden - often as Hauptschulen and Realschulen. In Wiesbaden-Biebrich, a four-class Realschule was founded in 1847, which was developed into a reform Realgymnasium in 1905 and a Realprogymnasium on the corner of Rathausstraße and Schulstraße in 1871. In 1910, it moved into the building of today's Wilhelm-Heinrich-von-Riehl-Schule on Dyckerhoffstraße. In 1937, the Riehlschule was dissolved and the building was used as accommodation for the Freiherr-vom-Stein-Schule. The Biebrich secondary school was opened here in April 1938 and was renamed Riehlschule again in 1961. Since the 1974/75 school year, it has been converted into an additive school and since 2006/07 into an integrated comprehensive school.

In Schierstein, the building known as the Hafenschule was inaugurated in 1963 on the site of the former Zehntenhof. In 1970, an additional secondary school was built at Zehntenhofstraße 20, the Erich-Kästner-Schule. In 1973, the former elementary school in Wiesbaden-Naurod was divided into an elementary school named after Rudolf Dietz and a secondary school, which was given the name Kellerskopfschule on July 21, 1983 and was reduced to a pure secondary school in the 2008/09 school year due to the sharp decline in the number of pupils in the secondary school sector.

The Ludwig-Erhard-Schule in Dotzheim, until the 2008/09 school year a Hauptschule and Realschule with a special stage, emerged from the former Landgrabenschule, which was built in 1909 in the north-east of Dotzheim. It was given the name Ludwig-Erhard-Schule in 1983. In 2001, a voluntary 10th year of secondary school was added. In 2009/2010, the school was remodeled and converted into an integrated comprehensive school under the name Alexej-von-Jawlensky-Schule. In Wiesbaden-Erbenheim, the first classes were able to move into the new school at Hochfeld on 01.01.1966, which was given the name Hermann-Ehlers-Schule. In 1966, a special school was added to the primary and lower secondary school and in the 1969/70 school year, a secondary school branch was added. The elementary school was separated in 1975 under the name Justus-von-Liebig-Schule. From the 1989/90 school year, the Hermann-Ehlers-Schule developed into an all-day school. In 1992, the school was reorganized as an integrated comprehensive school.