The square was created in about 1735 and was used under King Frederick William I as parade-ground, a sandy field then known as "Exerzierplatz vor dem Brandenburger Tor".

In 1844 the Kroll Opera House was built on its west end, and in 1867 it was turned into a city square named "Königsplatz".

At the east end of the square stood the Palais of the Polish-Prussian count Atanazy Raczyński, before the Reichstag building was built there from 1884 to 1894.

As part of a grandiose plan to create a "Welthauptstadt Germania", the Victory Column was enlarged and moved to its present location in 1939.

World War II ended in 1945 and in 1948 the square returned to the name "Platz der Republik".