The church and its congregation played a crucial role before and during the Wende (or peaceful revolution) in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in the autumn of 1989.

[1][2] Due to the high number of new parishioners moving into its area the end of the 19th century, the city's Zion's Church grew too small.

[5] Inside the crossing is extended to a wide octagon, including the side naves, allowing the congregants a good view and listening.

[6] Due to the high number of congregants at the time of its construction, lofts hang around the octagonal prayer hall except of its eastern side, which is open to the quire.

[7] According to the style, Orth oscillates between forms of Romanesque Revivalism with round arch windows and neo-Brick Gothic with traceries and rib vaults.

The eastern choir is formed like a polygonal apse, illuminated by three coloured windows of stained glass (as of 1893) and surrounded by an ambulatory, which houses the sacristy and other rooms for purposes of the congregation.

[8] The western tower has a square ground plan and is surmounted by a steep copper-roofed spire 62 metres high and stands over a vaulted entrance hall.

[10] The sculpture commemorates Jesus of Nazareth in the garden of Gethsemane, praying before his arrest: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

A bronze statue of the Benedictive Christ (after Bertel Thorvaldsen) originally shown at the western entrance is now presented on the cemetery of the congregation in Berlin-Nordend.

The East German government denied permission for this to be displayed on another site provided for it, as it lacked the official heroic symbols of the struggle, so it was erected on the church's land on 3 October 1990.

Opponents of the regime unveiled electoral fraud during the East German local elections held on 7 May 1988, and more people joined them after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 had started.

From 2 October 1989, in the run-up to the 40th anniversary of the foundation of East Germany, the Gethsemane Church began to keep its doors unlocked day and night, true to its motto "Be vigilant and Pray" (German: Wachet und betet), from the Gospel of Matthew.

On 7 October, the East German national day, the police of the GDR and secret Stasi units violently cracked down on demonstrators in Schönhauser Allee, and some of them managed to flee into the Gethsemane Church.

As announced earlier, and despite having been explicitly forbidden by Pope John Paul II to do so, the Roman Catholic priest Gotthold Hasenhüttl from Austria administered the Eucharist in Gethsemane Church, knowing that Protestants were among the communicants.