The Augusteum was built between 1831 and 1836 to plans by Albert Geutebrück, though its façade referred back to a classicist design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

[citation needed] The building had, however, already reached its full capacity by the 1870s since the university had grown due to major urban expansion in this period.

The Augusteum was heavily damaged by bombing in the Second World War, so the East German government decided it was beyond repair and (like the fully intact Paulinerkirche) ill-fitting for their concept of a university.

This cleared an area on which a new university complex in functional and sober DDR architectural style was built in 1975.

After German reunification, a citizens' initiative for the reconstruction of the university church and Augusteum of Leipzig gathered, but after years of litigation, demands for reconstruction were waived in favour of the university's need for modern teaching and research facilities.