This weekend, German Muslims go out to cast their vote in the federal elections. More than a million out of four million are entitled to vote. While the conservative, small entrepreneur profile of many Muslims voters of Turkish and Arab origin would predict a conservative vote, a poll in March showed that most German Muslims would vote socialist or elect a Green politician. The reason has to do with the rhetoric of German parties. Until the last elections, a clear cleavage existed between the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) suspicious of Muslims' capacity to integrate, and the Social-Democrats and the Greens, advocating more openness and political solutions. Yet in the past four years, a very positive change occurred. Germany discovered its 'immigration' problem in the early 90': While working out the uneasy integration of East Germany into the new all-German state, 3 million of Muslim guest-workers appeared as a particular problem for integration. They did not want to simply assimilate and cut themselves off from their origins. After 9/11, controversies about the legal status of immigrants and refugees became suddenly overshadowed by questions of cultural integration, of “Islam”, fitting into “Europe”. A number of regional conservative politicians from CDU/CSU made themselves known (and sometimes elected) by negative, suspicious and anti-immigrant positions. The first openings came from the Red-Green coalition after 1998. The Socialists passed a law in 2000 making access to citizenship easier. In 2005 they pushed through new immigration law, declaring for the first time Germany a country of immigration. At the same time the Greens promoted Muslim personalities to leading party positions. The Conservatives' comeback in 2005 lead nevertheless to the most active policy German state has ever held in integration matters. The Conservatives distrust the liberal belief in multiculturalism. The terrorist attacks perpetrated by seemingly integrated immigrant youth in Europe seemed to confirm their position. Yet they also moved the CDU to make questions of integration a top priority – in order to avoid similar attacks in Germany. The Socialists government before them acted in a top-down manner and deplored Muslims' political passivity. The CDU Interior Minister Schäuble and the head of the newly created “office for integration” saw that criticising islamophobia alone could not bridge the distance between Muslims and the state. Muslims had to define solutions themselves, in cooperation with the state, not in opposition to it. Between 2005 and 2009 the Ministry organised series of “German Islamic Conferences”. They had a great symbolic impact, while also showing a degree of discordant views, mistrust and ideological diversity among actors from both sides. By the initiative, Wolfgang Schäuble made clear: “Islam is part of Germany”. It filled a serious gap: the lack of the communities' representative to the government, capable of formulating Muslim positions on practical questions of integration. The conference's reverse side is a continuing absence of consensus about principles of co-existence and the unclear role of the state. It is indeed difficult to define 'Muslims', German Muslims being and extremely diverse group with diverse interests. Despite the ongoing controversies, a lot has changed. A process is in place that gives Muslims more agency and demanding power. The best part is that a seemingly anti-immigrant party took a significant and pragmatic measure – stepping out of immigration-related populism, addressing real, concrete issues and doing it in cooperation with the concerned people. Giving Muslims a voice and a responsibility is the road to integration and a model for Europe. German Muslims might soon vote as German citizens, not as a stigmatised group.