The church was made possible by an endowment from the widow of Wilhelm Heinrich Göschen (William Henry Goschen), a merchant from Saxony living in London.

It was built from 1868 to 1869 by August Pieper and the London architect James Piers St Aubyn for the many Anglicans living in Dresden.

It was a small three-aisle basilica design, with a low choir and a polygonal apse.

To its south was a square tower based on the Marburg Elisabethkirche with a tall octagonal spire.

The church was only slightly damaged in the First World War but nevertheless fell out of use.