The late Gothic choir

With its elongated high choir, ambulatory and ring of 13 chapels, the Freiburg Minster Choir is an extremely sophisticated building that is modelled on the monumental choir complexes of French cathedrals. The foundation stone inscription from 24 March 1354 is engraved on the northern choir portal, the "Creation Portal".

The first documented master builder of the choir was Johannes von (Schwäbisch) Gmünd. He belonged to the famous Parler family of master builders and sculptors. Their members were involved in such important buildings as Prague Cathedral, Cologne Cathedral and Ulm Minster. Around 1379/80, construction was delayed, partly for financial reasons. It was not until 1471 that the master builder Hans Niesenberger from Graz resumed work. After his departure, several other master builders followed. Under Hans Niederländer, the high choir was completed by 1513 and finally, under Wolf Koch, the chapel wreath was finished by 1536. From the 18th to the 20th century, numerous neo-Gothic elements were added, which have decisively characterised the overall appearance of the cathedral choir ever since. These include the steeply rising buttresses several metres high (1757-1929), the tracery parapets on the high choir roof and above the choir chapels (1750-1780) and the many small turrets on the chapel pillars (1779-1784). In the 1930s, five of them were completely redesigned.

Restoration work has been carried out on the choir time and again. The reasons for this are the filigree late Gothic architectural decoration and the sandstone material used in the 19th and 20th centuries, which proved to be weather-resistant.

The last comprehensive renovation was carried out between 1908 and 1944, during which numerous late Gothic architectural and decorative elements were replaced with copies. There were also plans to replace all of the neo-Gothic chapel and flying buttress centrepieces with "stylish" new creations. Fortunately, however, this was only partially realised.

Since 2013, restoration work has once again been carried out on the choir by the Münsterbauhütte. While the original medieval stones are being conserved, many replacement stones from the 20th century have to be replaced.