Like the "Kaufmännische Verein für weibliche Angestellte" or the "Verein selbständiger Kaufleute", the Kaufmännische Verein für Wiesbaden was founded in 1881 with the aim of improving the career opportunities of its members and ensuring their social security.

The Kaufmännische Verein offered various opportunities for professional training, for example through lectures or teaching courses, which were intended to teach merchants the increasing importance of advertising and how to use it correctly. There was also the opportunity to find a new or better-paid job more quickly through a job placement service. The Kaufmännischer Verein offered its own legal expenses insurance as well as a health and pension fund.

These plans were primarily based on the ideas of the founding members, which included Wiesbaden personalities such as the textile entrepreneur Joseph Baum and the tin foil and stamp manufacturer Franz Fehr-Flach. Joseph Baum is associated with one of the Kaufmännischer Verein's greatest successes, namely the founding of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kaufmannserholungsheime.

The Kaufmännischer Verein für Wiesbaden was a member of the Deutscher Verband Kaufmännischer Vereine and, like the latter, was dissolved by the National Socialists in 1933 as part of the Gleichschaltung process.