Kanzleigebäude, Gothic administrative building in Lübeck, Germany

The Kanzleigebäude is a Gothic brick building on the Breite Straße, north of Lübeck's town hall, built in 1485 and extended toward the Mengstraße in 1588 and 1614 in the Brick Renaissance style. Its ground floor opens through arcades, glazed since the 2005 reopening; the upper floor holds offices and a literature cafe with three listed rooms, among them the Adlersaal.

Built in Gothic style over five years and completed in 1485, the Kanzleigebäude housed notaries and council scribes who kept the Niederstadtbuch, the city's lower register, from 1277 to 1863. It was extended toward the Mengstraße in brick Renaissance style in 1588 and again in 1614. Around 1800 it held the passport and stamp office, the registry with the state archive, and the beer-tasting chamber; it later served as a police building.

The name Kanzleigebäude refers to the chancery scribes and notaries who worked here; from 1277 to 1863 they kept the Niederstadtbuch, the city's lower register, now an important historical source. Until 1818 the ground-floor arcades stood open, housing stalls where furriers and shoemakers ran their workshops. The upper floor's Adlersaal, painted with eagle motifs by Peter Thienhaus in 1939, now holds a literature cafe run with the Buddenbrookhaus across the Mengstraße.

The building stands on Breite Straße, north of the town hall. A roughly 50-metre arcade gallery runs along its west side, past the choir of St Mary's Church, to the north side of the town hall. The east-side arcades were glazed in 2005, so the shops there sit behind glass rather than in the open.

The west side has a roughly 50-metre arcade walk that runs along the choir of St Mary's Church to the north side of the town hall. The building was nicknamed "the city's largest vending machine" when it housed the police: youths who threw stones at the windows were met at once by an officer coming out below.