Cologne’s central mosque suffered many critics before its construction began in 2009. It’s now almost finished and is being hailed as a new artistic and social vision for the predominantly Christian city.
Cologne’s new central mosque has already endured years of criticism – and it’s not even finished yet.
There are those who have complained about the height of its minarets and those who call it der Meiler – from Atommeiler, German for nuclear reactor – because they say it looks like an atomic facility.
When plans were first unveiled for the redevelopment of the central mosque, some critics even saw it as an opportunity to raise a fundamental debate about the city’s Turkish Islamic community.
The right-wing group Pro Köln and the prominent social commentator, Ralph Giordano, campaigned to have the construction plans stopped. Giordano’s focus was not the mosque – he complained instead that integration of the Turkish Islamic community had failed and that the problem was Islam.
Now six years into the project, its architect Paul Böhm says the mosque is itself an act of integration.
“This is one of the most important buildings I have ever designed,” Böhm told Deutsche Welle. “It’s given me a chance to do something which is not only for a specific group of people, but for the whole community.”