Until 1860, the village of Kösen was administratively and ecclesiastically subordinated to the municipality of Pforta, so it had neither a church nor its own pastor. Only twice a year an open-air service was held in Kösen in the "Buchenhalle" in the forest about above the present tennis court (recorded by the painter Adolph Menzel in 1868 in his famous painting "Mission service in the Buchenhalle near Kösen").
Otherwise, the residents of Kösen and increasingly also spa and bathing guests had to take the long way to the monastery church in Pforta every Sunday to be able to attend the service. This was often too burdensome, especially for the latter. They founded a church building fund and collected donations for their own church.

On May 5, 1860, the separation of the parish of Kösen with Fränkenau, Kukulau and the hall houses from the mother parish of Pforta was approved and the room shed of the former salt works served from then on as a "prayer hall". From Pforta it received a small bell, the former school bell "Hosianna", which called the faithful to worship until 1873, and as a parsonage the parish was given the residential house of the former saline accountant. The first pastor was the former assistant pastor Wilhelm Barthold, whose most important concern, apart from the parish work, was the construction of his own church.

As early as 1855, there had been concrete plans for a church building on the site of today's Bergschule. However, they were rejected because of the poor location. It was not until September 19, 1892 that the groundbreaking ceremony for the neo-Gothic church could take place. Two years later, on Thanksgiving Day on September 30, 1894, the church was then consecrated and given the name of the reformer Martin Luther.

In 1951/52, the interior of the Luther Church was modernized and remodeled, and the old wall paintings were whitewashed. Then, in 1959, the three bronze bells with the tones "G sharp", "B" and "C sharp" were raised, which still call us to worship every Sunday. (Their changing predecessors had been melted down for the two world wars - a fate that many church bells had to share with them at that time).

However, as far as the building fabric of the Luther Church was concerned, there was a lot wrong with it. Bricks were falling off, the roof was leaking, and rainwater was getting in. The deterioration of the church continued. In the 1970s, the roof was covered, but no scaffolding was available for the 55-meter tower. It was not until the tower threatened to collapse in the mid-1980s and the partner congregation in Bochum donated a steel tube scaffold that it was possible to re-roof the steeple of the Luther Church.

After the political upheaval, at the end of the 1980s and during the 1990s, the urgently needed building tasks within the church could finally be tackled.
The church interior was renovated, changing, among other things, the saying above the altar arch,
the leaded painted windows (PDF) with people and depictions from the New Testament were restored, and thanks to generous support from the partner parish, a winter church with underfloor heating was installed under the organ loft.
Between 1996 and 1997, the long-awaited restoration of the original romantic Rühlmann organ from 1894 finally took place, so that today it shines again in almost new splendor and impresses the listeners with its sound.