The Schiffchen is a popular name for a complex of houses around 165 m long and 30 m wide, bordered by Wagemannstrasse, Grabenstrasse, Goldgasse and Marktstrasse, which was the suburb outside the upper city gate and was populated by craftsmen and traders. Wagemannstraße, named after the town elder Jean Baptiste Wagemann in 1913, is one of the oldest streets in the town; in the Middle Ages it was called "auf dem Graben" after the adjacent moat to the east, later Judengasse, and around the middle of the 17th century Krämergasse and Metzgergasse.

The oldest surviving house in Schiffchen is that of the Cetto family at Wagemannstraße 7 from 1728(Cetto House). Most of the houses that still exist today were built between 1820 and 1910. Several Jewish families lived there until around 1800, and there are also reports of a synagogue or Jewish school. The Wiesbaden slaughterhouse was located here until 1884. The bakers living in the Schiffchen also used the well to prepare their sourdough with the salty thermal water. There were also several mills that were powered by the water of the Dendelbach, which flowed freely until the 19th century. Since the 1870s, Metzgergasse has repeatedly been the scene of violent disputes, e.g. the Wiesbaden bread riot of 28/29 April 1873.

From the end of the 19th century onwards, the Schiffchen, which was now home to numerous restaurants, wine houses and other pubs, continued to decline. In the 1950s, the name Schiffchen, and Wagemannstraße in particular, was synonymous with Wiesbaden's red-light district. Pubs such as the "Rote Katze" or the "Oase" nightclub dominated the scene.

The redevelopment of the Schiffchen began around 1975. Grabenstraße in particular has gained a lot from the construction of the new plenary hall building of the Hessian State Parliament.