Lotharinger Chorfrauenkirche, Munster

The Lotharinger Chorfrauenkirche is a former choral church of the Lotharinger Kloster (Lorraine Women's Cloister) in Münster. The history of the sanctuary began in 1642 when a group of choir women from Lorraine (German: Lothringen) province came to Münster as refugees and established here a convent to devote themselves to the support and education of young women and girls.

The first church on the site, built in 1698, was destroyed, along with the rest of the convent, by shelling during the Seven Years' War, in 1759. The new complex, including the current church, was built from 1764 to 1773. The church's interior decoration was completed in 1775.

Both the convent building and the church were the last work of the renowned German architect, Johann Conrad Schlaun. His daughter was admitted to the convent as a choir lady, and his nephew, Lieutenant Colonel Johann Anton Josef von Thelen, oversaw the construction management.

Designed in Baroque style, the brick building has a square plan with rounded corners. The coat of arms over the front portal belongs to the nobleman who funded the construction.

The building acted as a place of worship until the dissolution of the convent in 1811, during the French occupation. After the territory was reclaimed by Prussia, the building was sold to the city of Münster and subsequently served a number of secular purposes, such as barracks (until 1931), apartment block (until 1955), and the city archives (from 1978 to 2003).

While most of the convent buildings burned down during World War II and had to be demolished, the church itself survived almost intact. From 1961 to 1973, it had been renovated and its facade reconstructed based on a copy of the picture from 1772.

Presently, the building houses the Marriage Registry Office.