The square was created by Johann Arnold Nering at the end of the seventeenth century as the Linden-Markt and reconstructed by Georg Christian Unger in 1773.

The Gendarmenmarkt is named after a Prussian cuirassier regiment called the Gendarmen [de], which had stables at the square until 1773.

It was a marketplace and part of the city's Western expansion of Friedrichstadt, one of Berlin's emerging quarters.

The terminology is a relic of francophone Frederick the Great, who was instrumental in enhancing the Gendarmenmarkt) is the older of the two churches and was built by the Huguenot community between 1701 and 1705.

It has a pentagonal structure and was designed by Martin Grünberg and built in 1708 by Giovanni Simonetti.