This church played an important role in what has been known as Leipzig's peaceful revolution. Already in 1982 people started to gather here on Mondays to pray for peace. In the autumn of 1989 as more and more people from the DDR were escaping through the holes that appeared in the Iron Curtain, this also became a theme. When the police attempted a crackdown, they were met by peaceful demonstrators holding candles and had to cave in.