It is the only pre-World War II Lutheran parish church building remaining in the historic section of central Munich.

Although the large church is nicknamed Dom der Münchner Protestanten (Cathedral of the Munich Protestants), St. Luke's is not a seat of a bishop (cathedra).

The Electorate of Bavaria was predominantly Catholic under the reigning Wittelsbach family after the Reformation; but in 1799 the Wittelsbach head, Prince-elector Max IV Joseph, married Friederike Karoline Wilhelmine, a Lutheran princess, and there was suddenly a Protestant presence at court in Munich.

But the Bavarian royal family was concerned to protect the Catholic character of the city, therefore the Lutherans were given land on the banks of the river Isar to build St. Luke's.

[2] The architect Albert Schmidt has used pre-Reformation styles in order to please the Roman Catholic city rulers: The exterior architecture is built in Romanesque forms, while the interior is reminiscent of the early Rhenish Gothic based on the geometric shape of a Greek cross.