“Germany dedicated a large amount of planning and resources to propaganda for Muslim prisoners of war.”

By Patricia Cecil

IN 1915, a seemingly curious structure was erected in the Wünsdorf-Zossen prisoner-of-war camp near Berlin: a mosque. It would turn out to be the first Islamic place of worship ever constructed on German soil.

The site, which quickly earned the nickname Half Moon Camp, was home to captured soldiers of diverse militaries, nationalities, ethnicities and languages. The POWs all had one thing in common: their Islamic faith.

The origins of the mosque lie in Germany’s alliance with the Ottoman Empire at the start of the Great War. Two months after the opening of hostilities in the summer of 1914, Berlin and Turkey formed a military pact. The two countries shared similar goals, including national protection, territorial expansion, military strength and to weaken rival empires (and allied countries) Great Britain, Russia and France.

At the time of the war’s outbreak, Great Britain controlled Egypt, India and other South Asian lands — homes of the largest Muslim populations in the world. France, with colonies in North Africa, was not far behind. Russia, too, had large Muslim populations in the Caucasus Mountain region. Great Britain, France and Russia all used colonial subjects in their war effort; many of their subjects lived under oppressive conditions. If mobilized, a Muslim uprising would pose a threat to the imperial powers of Europe. As a result, Germany developed the idea of a propaganda-inspired prisoner-of-war camp for Muslim soldiers. The camp targeted the hearts and minds of captured soldiers, motivating them to support the Central Powers and influence revolution in their home countries.

Leadership planned to build a mosque at Half Moon Camp from the beginning. Berlin promoted religious practice as a cornerstone of propaganda, and the Ottoman Empire advocated for Muslim prisoners of war to have a place for worship. Rumor spread that the mosque was a “gift of the Kaiser,” built at the insistence of and paid for by Wilhelm II. This supported Germany’s ideal story that the Kaiser was a friend to Muslim people and Germany a supporter of the Muslim world. In reality, military administrators funded the mosque’s construction and used prisoners as laborers. The legend that the Kaiser financed the mosque, however, lived on in and outside of Germany.

The mosque was a collage of Islamic architecture from around the world, with regional styles meant to appeal to prisoners’ memories of their home countries. The largest architectural influence on the mosque was the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock is the oldest surviving major monument of Islam, considered by Muslims to be the most sacred place on earth next to the Kaaba in Mecca. The mosque’s designers wanted to use the visibility and importance of the Dome of the Rock to gain influence for Germany and the Ottoman Empire. Other regional architectural styles represented in the mosque included Mughal Indo-Islamic, Ottoman, Andalusian and Mamluk. The global Islamic architecture of the mosque was a direct attempt to cue prisoner’s religious values and cultural memories to inspire allegiance to the German-Ottoman cause.

Germany dedicated a large amount of planning and resources to propaganda for Muslim prisoners of war, but the campaign by most measures was a failure. Some POWs did join the alliance; about 800 prisoners from Half Moon Camp registered for the Ottoman army and went to Turkey. Most Muslim POWs from Half Moon Camp, about 4,200 or 84 per cent, chose not to join the German-Ottoman alliance, and a Muslim revolution to overthrow English, French and Russian empires never materialized.

English, French and Russian empires did not attempt specific prisoner-of-war propaganda programs akin to Half Moon Camp on Central Powers prisoners of war, but they did organize campaigns of propaganda and control themselves. French officials aimed their propaganda arm at their own colonial soldiers. This included the building of a mosque in France. The British Empire reacted with force, as they could lose significant global power and influence if Muslim colonial subjects decided to revolt. Great Britain’s engagement deepened in the Middle East for the entire four years of war, a response that resulted in the fracturing of the Middle East via the Sykes-Picot Agreement. These decisions would influence the control of Islam and the future leadership of the Middle East.

The mosque at Half Moon Camp was a physical manifestation of German-Ottoman propaganda. This propaganda campaign attempted to use the religion of Islam to foster a global, geo-political revolution to destabilize and weaken rival empires. Ultimately an immediate failure in perspective of the First World War, the cultural, political and religious repercussions of the camp reverberate today.

Patricia Cecil is a specialist curator for faith, religion and the First World War at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri.