Built by order of King Frederick William I of Prussia according to plans by Philipp Gerlach from 1730 to 1735, it was considered as a major work of Prussian Baroque architecture.

The first section opened in 2024, containing a Coventry Cross of Nails chapel, an exhibition about the history of the place and a viewing platform at a height of 57 meters.

In Nazi Germany, the building was used for propaganda purposes; at the same time, many 20 July plotters belonged to the Garrison Church parish.

A panel with gold lettering mounted above the main entrance facing Broad Street (Breiten Straße) read, "Friderich Wilhelm, King of Prussia, had this tower built next to the Garnisonkirchein to the honor of God.

A carillon, inherited from the first Garrison church consecrated in 1722, was augmented with five new bass tone bells produced by Paul Meurer.

From 1797 until 1945 the musical order was changed to Bach's Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden (Praise the Lord, all ye nations) and Üb' immer Treu' und Redlichkeit (Always Be True and Faithful) from Ludwig Hölty, a theme Mozart composed for Papageno's aria, Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen, in The Magic Flute.

The sculptor, Johann Georg Glume (de), created marble figures of Mars and Bellona, which flanked the entrance to the crypt below.

Thanks to a generous donation from the mail order house founder, Werner Otto, it has been possible to rebuild the Wagner organ based on existing documents.

It had a steep pavilion roof and a two-storey tower which housed a 35 tone carillon built by the Amsterdam organ builder Jan Albert de Grave (nl).

Soldiers, most of whom were members of the royal regiment 'Potsdam Giants', made up the congregation and regularly attended German Reformed Church services there.

After only a few years, cracks appeared in the walls, and the building began to tilt due to the marshy land beneath and insufficient foundations.

So it was with great gratitude that he was able to climb the 365 steps to the top of the Garrison Church bell tower in August 1735, soon after recovering from severe illness.

Sophia Dorothea, wife of Frederick William I, who died on June 28, 1757, decreed in her testament that she wished to be buried in the Hohenzollern Crypt of the Berlin Cathedral, so that her space in the Garrison Church remained free.

At the request of Queen Louise in 1797, the choral Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele (Praise the Lord, my soul) was played on the carillon each hour, followed on the half-hour by Üb' immer Treu' und Redlichkeit (using the aria melody Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen from Mozart's The Magic Flute).

In November 1805, the Russian Tsar Alexander I was invited by King Frederick William III and Queen Louise to meet in the royal crypt to celebrate the consolidation of their alliance against Napoleon.

In 1816, in order to make room for flags at the victory celebration of the War of Liberation against the French Army, the figures of Mars and Bellona in the Garrison Church were moved to the staircase of the City Palace.

The church balustrade railings were draped in red and gold fabric and hung with commemorative plaques for the soldiers who had fallen in battle.

It was characterized by the representational style popular at the time and featured newly arranged cypress wood pews, and richly decorated paneling.

In 1907, a wrought iron gate was added to the tower entrance, and in 1910 Kaiser Wilhelm II donated a splendid altar table, ending an era of considerable embellishment.

According to Article 245 of the Versailles Treaty, the French trophies should have been returned to France, but in July 1919, they were removed by persons unknown and, to this day, have never been found.

The Nazis hoped for a majority of votes in the parliamentary elections held under an extremely uncertain climate of judicial insecurity and violence on March 5, 1933.

The intentionally-chosen date fell on the anniversary of the opening of the first Reichstag Parliament by Kaiser Wilhelm I in the White Salon in the Berlin Palace on March 21, 1871.

One by one the carillon bells loosened and fell nearly 80 meters to the ground until finally the oaken roof of the tower also collapsed ending the long existence of Potsdam's most famous musical instrument.

[4] The congregation, now much reduced in number, managed to maintain ownership of the land belonging to the Garrison Church Potsdam after negotiating with local government authorities.

In 1966, construction work on 5 tower landings came to an abrupt end, when in August the leaders of the Potsdam Communist Party decided to have the ruins removed without consulting the general public.

In 2001 the President of the SCPC initiated the founding of the “Stiftung Preußisches Kulturerbe” (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), which, once reconstruction was completed, would be responsible for future maintenance.

The FWG is an agreement between persons and organizations with interests stemming from religious, philosophical, cultural or city planning backgrounds who wish to recommend and commit their support to the present and future work involved in the reconstruction of the Garrison Church according to the theme stated in Call from Potsdam.

By clearing the area and re-routing the course of Broad Street to accommodate as nearly as possible the original building site; two important premises for the start of construction have already been met.

A ceremony for the beginning of construction on the tower of the reconstructed Garrison Church was due to be celebrated on October 31, 2017 (the 500th anniversary of the Reformation).

[10] On 22 August 2024, the rebuilt tower with an exhibition about the history of the place and a viewing platform at a height of 57 meters was inaugurated in a ceremony attended by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.