[1] The mosque was constructed in early 1916 on the grounds of the Bois de Vincennes, as a counterpropaganda project and to serve some of the Muslim soldiers who came to France during World War I.

Von Oppenheim, whose nickname Abu Jihad was posthumously popularized by Wolfgang G. Schwanitz,[4] was given charge of a newly created Intelligence Bureau for the East which sponsored the prisoner-of-war camp named "Half Moon" (Halbmondlager) in Zossen-Wünsdorf near Berlin.

As its name suggests, the Halbmondlager was specifically intended for Muslim soldiers from British and French colonies and included a monumental mosque, the first ever built in Germany, completed in July 1915.

[6] Dedication prayers were read by two imams, Bou-Mezrag El-Mokrani of Chlef (a descendant of Cheikh Mokrani) and Katranji Sid Abderrahman of Algiers.

[2] A number of commemorative monuments were erected nearby during the interwar period and dedicated to the memory of fallen soldiers from various French colonies, most of them non-Muslims.