Islamisches Forum Penzberg, Contemporary mosque in Penzberg, Germany

The Islamic Forum Penzberg stands at the corner of Bichler Straße and Fraunhoferstraße in an industrial area, built on an L-shaped plan as a cuboid and set slightly askew to the streets because it faces Mecca. The roof is flat, without a dome, and the qibla facade toward Fraunhoferstraße is clad in blue glass. Beside it, the minaret is a steel-plate structure of three stacked blocks topped by two interlocking crescents.

The Islamic Community of Penzberg, founded in 1994, first prayed in a backyard mosque that became too small for its roughly 160 members. It bought the Bichler Straße plot in 1999, applied to build in 2002 and received approval in 2003. The forum opened in 2005, financed entirely by donations, most of the roughly three million euros coming from the Emir of Sharjah.

The main entrance on Bichler Straße is shaped like an open book; its two pages carry the Fatiha, the Basmala and verse 49:13 in German and Arabic. The steel minaret is covered with Arabic script of the call to prayer, with the spaces between letters cut out as an openwork ornament.

The building stands at the corner of Bichler Straße and Fraunhoferstraße in a Penzberg commercial zone, set slightly at an angle to the streets because it faces Mecca. The main entrance on Bichler Straße is shaped as an open book; the blue glass Qibla facade faces Fraunhoferstraße. Since July 2026, four signs at Penzberg's town entrances announce the Friday prayer times.

The building won the Wessobrunn Architecture Prize in 2008 for successfully blending modern European design language with Islamic architectural elements. This recognition demonstrates how contemporary architecture can unite different cultural traditions.