The Cologne Central Mosque (German: DITIB-Zentralmoschee Köln, Turkish: Köln Merkez-Camii) is a building commissioned by German Muslims of the Organization DİTİB for a large, representative Zentralmoschee (central mosque) in Cologne, Germany. This mosque was inaugurated by Turkish President Erdogan. After controversy, the project won the approval of Cologne’s city council.
The mosque is designed in neo-Ottoman architectural style, with glass walls, two minarets and a dome. The mosque is proposed to have a bazaar as well as other secular areas intended for interfaith interactions. As the mosque is one of Europe’s biggest mosques, and the largest mosque in Germany, it has been criticized by some, particularly for the height of the minarets.
The 48,000-square-foot (4,500 m²) mosque cost £15–20 million to build, aiming to house 2,000 to 4,000 worshippers. The mosque is funded by Diyanet İşleri Türk İslam Birliği (DİTİB), a branch of the Turkish government’s religious affairs authority, bank loans, and donations from 884 Muslim associations. Cologne’s St. Theodore Catholic Church has also decided to fundraise for the mosque. The architects of the mosque are Gottfried Böhm and his son Paul Böhm, who specializes in building churches.
The mosque is in the Ottoman architecture style. It has a main hall of 36.5 meter, and two 55 meter high minarets. The mosque has the bazaar and entrance on the ground floor, lecture halls in the basement, the prayer area on the upper floor and include a Muslim library. A well is placed in the centre to connect the two levels and create a pleasant atmosphere. The mosque consists of flat-like wall screens which form a dome in the centre.
It also has glass walls, which according to DİTİB spokesman Alboga give visitors a feeling of openness. According to the architect, openness is further enhanced by an inviting staircase from the street. The developers have required that the secular areas of the mosque (e.g. the restaurant, event halls and stores) be open to people of all religions. A plan welcomed by then mayor of Cologne Fritz Schramma to build shorter minarets was dropped after the architects said the plan would leave the minarets out of proportion with the rest of the building and surrounding structures.
It was first used as a mosque in 2017. The inauguration of the mosque in September 2018 during the state visit to Germany by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was controversial as the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs neglected to provide a satisfying security concept for the event. Therefore Cologne only premitted a limited number of attendees of 500 invited guests to the inauguration. DİTİB also failed to allow the mayor of Cologne Henriette Reker to hold a speech at the inauguration, following which she declined to attend. Reker lamented the fact that the official inauguration took part in presence of Erdogan as the mosque was in use since quite some while also before. It was interpreted that DİTİB was more an extension to the Turkish Government and that it was not interested in a cooperation with german institutions. Armin Laschet, the Minister President of North Rhine Westphalia also declined to attend.
