Dedicated to Hedwig of Silesia, it was erected from 1747 to 1773 by order of Frederick the Great according to plans by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff in Baroque style.

Damaged during the Allied bombing in World War II, the cathedral's interior was restored from 1952 to 1963 in post-war modernist style as part of the rebuilding of the Forum Fridericianum on Bebelplatz.

It was not opened until 1 November 1773, when the king's friend, Ignacy Krasicki, the Bishop of Warmia (later Archbishop of Gniezno), officiated at the cathedral's consecration.

[5] After the Kristallnacht pogroms that took place on the night of 9–10 November 1938, Bernhard Lichtenberg, a canon of the cathedral chapter of St. Hedwig since 1931, prayed publicly for Jews at evening prayer.

Reconstruction started in 1952 and on 1 November 1963, All Saints' Day, the new high altar was consecrated by the Bishop of Berlin, Alfred Cardinal Bengsch.

A focal point of the renovations is a hemispherical altar composed of small stones from around the diocese collected by parishioners, based on an idea proposed by Austrian artist Leo Zogmayer.