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Official tour: 100 year celebration 2024
Wilmersdorf
and its Mosque

With an interior visit to one of the most beautiful mosques. Very exclusive.

After the renovation, my guided tours will be the only ones to regularly explain this wonderful building and its history to you.
An extraordinary experience in Berlin.

A very special architectural tour.
Interesting for everyone.

Date:Monthly in German language.
English tours available as private tours only.
Duration:About 2,5 hours
Length:About 1,7 Km
More / Price:See the information block below.

Our urban history walk:

Old Wilmersdorf.

We start our tour at one of the oldest preserved houses in Wilmersdorf.

During the subsequent two-hour historical walk through Wilmersdorf, you will learn many
you will learn many details about local life in the past 250 years:

Just a few examples:

  • What were “millionaire farmers”?
  • Wilmersdorf had an even bigger lake?
  • The tribute to the ideas of the car-friendly city.
  • From the gigantic beer garden to the church.
  • The country house quarter.
    And much more.

You will also become virtually acquainted with another extremely unusual sacral building, which unfortunately no longer exists. It was just as conspicuous in this area as the mosque, was built almost at the same time and will probably come as a surprise to many participants.


The Wilmersdorf Mosque

After about two hours, we reach the wonderful conclusion of our neighbourhood tour: the Wilmersdorf Mosque. It is sometimes confidently called the “Berlin Mosque”.
And it is one of the most beautiful mosques anywhere. Worldwide. At least for me.
It is located quite openly on a corner plot. And yet, it is simply overlooked by many people driving by.
Those who do discover the Wilmersdorf mosque usually have reservations. So beautiful and yet so strange.

I felt the same way. And now: for more than a decade, I have had an extremely friendly relationship with the respective imams and the congregation of this wonderful building.
As “Christian Fessel Fotografie”, I have been allowed to take countless photos and videos of this building and know every nook and cranny. I am present at many festivals, Friday prayers and activities.

Built from 1924, this is the second mosque to be built in Germany. The first no longer exists. This is therefore also the oldest mosque in Germany that is also in operation as such.
Very unusually, construction of another mosque had begun a year earlier.
Much larger, also in the Mogul architectural style, and also located at a “good address”: very close to the Lietzensee!
You can find out more about this sacred building, its short history and the connection with the Wilmersdorf mosque on our tour, of course.

A journey through a very unusual history.

Soon it will be the 100th anniversary since construction began. Then as now, the owners and operators are a very open-minded, Pakistani community that hardly conforms to the usual stereotypes. 

But why was the mosque built here, in Protestant Berlin?
Why by Pakistani Muslims?
Why on this spot, in what was then the nothingness of Wilmersdorf?
Why in such an unusual Mughal style, so magnificent?
Many German non-Muslims rendered outstanding services to this sacred building. What were their motives?

Depending on the availability of time, the Imam, Mr. Amir Aziz, will be available to answer any questions about Islam after the tour. This is not an integral part of the tour and therefore cannot be guaranteed.

It is with special pleasure that I show you the little Taj Mahal of Berlin: the Wilmersdorf Mosque.
With exciting stories and facts that you won’t find out anywhere else.

The community is very reluctant to give out titles and awards. Therefore, I am extremely honoured to have been awarded the title of “Friend of the Mosque” – only the third time in the 100 years since the mosque was founded. What is more, I do not belong to the Muslim faith.
Brief justification: With the title “Friends of the Mosque” we honour (…) professionals who have supported us beyond the limits of their assignment. As 3: Mr Christian Fessel (professional photographer).



Text and all photographs on this page: © Christian Fessel