2020-01-30

A look back at the 19th century

City map of Wiesbaden from the year 1896. Marked with a circle: the address Wilhelmstrasse 1

The Reinhard Ernst Museum is being built on a site on which there used to be a parking deck and before that a Grand Hotel. An old city map from 1896 shows the construction in the corner of the site. And the façade of the Hotel Victoria is shown as a photo on an undated historical postcard. Different times, different ways: Wilhelmstrasse looks completely free of traffic, and only one person is standing on the footpath. The rails of the tramway are clearly visible in the picture; it was opened as a horse-drawn tram in 1875 and continued in 1896 as an electric tram between the Walkmühle brewery and the railway stations on Rheinstrasse (Rheinbahnhof, Taunus-Bahnhof, Hessischer Ludwigs-Bahnhof – where the Wiesbaden Museum and the RMCC are located today). Towards the end of 1900, an approximately 11-kilometre long network of three tram lines ran through Wiesbaden.

View of Wilhelmstrasse. The façade of the Hotel Victoria can be seen on the right.