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The mosque was erected on sacred ground: During World War I, Berlin-Wilmersdorf was the location of the so-called Half Moon Camp, a POW camp for 15.000 British and French soldiers of Muslim faith. A wooden mosque (demolished after the end of the war) was part of that camp.
The current mosque was designed by K.A. Herrmann, who modeled it after Indias Taj Mahal, including two 90 feet tall minarets.
Since 1928, services are helt in German language. In 1934, the first muslim wedding in Germany took place in this Mosque.
At the end of WW II, Nazi Germany used the Minarets as machine gun bases, which led to the almost complete demolishing of the mosque by Russian artillery.
On June 24, 1952 the Mosque was reopened by Berlin's Imam Mohammed Aman Hobohm. However, the Minarets were rebuilt only in 1999 and 2001, financed by a foundation for the preservation of the Mosque.
In 2011, the Mosque was damaged by an arsonist. At the time of our visit in September 2016, reconstruction of the facade was still in progress (hence the scaffolding in our pictures).
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