In the early Christian era, the site was first venerated as the place where the Virgin Mary entered her eternal sleep. A church was established here in the 5th century, but it faced destruction and rebuilding over the centuries. During the Crusades, a new church was built on the ruins of the earlier one, but it was destroyed again when the Muslims retook Jerusalem in the 12th century. The land remained mostly unused for about 500 years, lying in ruins and largely forgotten.

The transformation of this neglected site began when Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany visited Jerusalem in 1898. The Kaiser, with his keen interest in expanding Germany’s influence in the Holy Land, negotiated with Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire to purchase the land on Mount Zion for 120,000 German Goldmarks​.

On October 7, 1900, the foundation stone for the new abbey was laid with great ceremony. The event was a grand affair, symbolizing the growing European interest in the Holy Land and Germany’s ambitions under Wilhelm II’s rule. The design of the Abbey was entrusted to the renowned German architect Heinrich Renard, who envisioned a structure that would reflect both Romanesque and Byzantine architectural styles. The building of Dormition Abbey took a decade to complete. The Abbey was finally dedicated on April 10, 1910. The Abbey’s completion marked a significant moment in the history of Jerusalem, reinforcing the presence of the German Catholic community in the Holy Land.

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Abbey was damaged by shelling as Mount Zion became a strategic military position. For 20 years, the site was used by the Israeli Defense Forces as a lookout point on the border with Jordan. It wasn’t until after the Six-Day War in 1967 that the Abbey was restored and reopened to the public, once again becoming a place of worship and pilgrimage​​.