A kick-off event on 20 April 2024 at WiCoPop in Kleine Schwalbacher Straße marked the start of extensive citizen participation on the topic of inner cities as part of the federal funding program "Sustainable inner cities and centers". It was accompanied by the Kokonsult agency and the urban planning office tobeSTADT.

Interested parties were invited to find out about the future of Wiesbaden's city center, exchange ideas and have their say. In addition to discussions with city officials and experts, the program included hands-on activities, a city walk, a sound tour and a children's program.

Over the course of the public participation process, many interested parties got involved in city explorations, the hands-on exhibition, exchange meetings, network meetings and discussions in the Werkraum Innenstadt and made a variety of contributions.

At an in-depth event on September 9, 2024 at the Theater im Pariser Hof, the initial results were presented and strategic fields of action were discussed with a view to the future. Questions were discussed such as: Which assumptions about themes and locations in the historic 5-corner have been confirmed? What findings have emerged from the participation? Which topics should be explored in greater depth? How do we want to develop and test ideas for the future with them? A "map of places of heart and pain" and illustrations with ideas for the future of the city center were also presented.

At a developer workshop for participation on 6 December 2024 at the RheinMain CongressCenter, the next step was to specify measures for selected spaces and develop ideas for experimental spaces. Inspiration was provided by the keynote speech "Urban diversity and togetherness - how do you create places to feel good in the city center?" by Prof. Constanze Petrow and the discussion with urban planner Torsten Becker, moderated by Katharina Lampe.

The developer workshop focused on the work of the participants in workshop groups on four areas of Wiesbaden's city center: Luisenquartier, Quellenviertel, Römertor and Schulberg as well as the pedestrian zone. The separate work areas were set up in such a way that the participants actually entered the spaces as future spaces through movable walls and pinboards. Inspiration was provided by thematic approaches to the spaces, results from previous participation and images from the urban explorations, as well as illustrations and images from the real-world laboratories, citizens' ideas for the future and strategic topics from the concept. Large maps of the respective areas were placed on the tables as a working basis.

When bringing together topics and spaces in the city center, the participants first slipped into the role of typical personas - the change of perspective made it possible to look at the space with different eyes. The different perspectives and ideas of the experimental spaces were then discussed in the respective groups and a joint project profile was drawn up. The event concluded with a presentation and discussion of the individual group work in front of all participants.

Do you have specific ideas and projects for the design and further development of Wiesbaden's city center within the Historic Pentagon? Would you like to network or get involved in a "local partnership"? Then get in touch with the city partner who supports the city management.

The office is located in the "Werkraum Innenstadt" in Kleine Schwalbacher Straße. The Citypartner offers various event formats in Wiesbaden's city center in order to exchange ideas personally and on-site with you and the citizens, initiatives, local restaurateurs, residents and local tradespeople.