The local administration of Berlin has established that anyone, including women, can bathe or sunbathe in the city’s public swimming pools. topless. The decision was made in the context of a lawsuit filed by a woman who claimed to be discriminated against, given that men are allowed to go bare-chested without problems. The measure was seen as a step forward in the issue of gender equality and will serve to clarify a somewhat ambiguous regulation, but it is also in line with the habit of German people to uncover their bodies – albeit to a limited extent to some circumstances – with a certain aplomb.
The matter had received some national press attention in the summer of 2021, when a French woman had been sent away from a Berlin water park because she was sunbathing with a bare chest and after being called back by the pool attendants she refused to wear a swimsuit to cover her breasts. The story that led to the decision, however, dates back to last December, when another woman who did not wear the top of the swimsuit in an indoor swimming pool had complained about the recalls of the staff, pointing out that men were treated differently. So the woman had filed a complaint with the city government department that deals with justice, diversity and anti-discrimination.
In the end, the Berlin authorities agreed with the woman, and in a statement released on Thursday they made it known that all people will be able to go topless to Berlin’s swimming pools, «in a fair way», regardless of their gender.
Doris Liebscher, head of equal rights in the local administration, said she was satisfied with the decision, which she said “establishes equal rights for all people in Berlin, whether they are male, female or non-binary”, i.e. who do not recognize themselves neither in the feminine nor in the masculine gender. According to Liebscher, the decision also protects the staff of the swimming pools, who from now on will have clear indications on how to behave.
The rules of the company that manages the swimming pools in the German capital (Berliner Bäder-betriebe) did not differ according to gender, but included the obligation to wear bathing suits that completely covered the genitals: a company spokeswoman said that in some cases this formulation was interpreted more widely as a ban on toplessness for women. As the German newspaper clarified The timein short, bathing topless in Berlin’s swimming pools was not per se forbidden, but now it will no longer be a problem for anyone who wants to do it.
Berlin is not the first German city to make similar decisions. For example, topless bathing was already explicitly permitted in both Göttingen and Siegen swimming pools in the central part of the country. TO GöttingenIn particular, the issue arose from the case of a male-identified person who was asked to cover his chest at a local swimming pool and then prohibited from returning.
As a rule, German people are quite relaxed about nudity, or at least more so than Italians. Practicing nudism or naturism (which are two things a little different) and more generally exposing parts of their body in certain circumstances is part of the so-called “naturism”, literally “culture of the free body”: it is a philosophy born in the 19th century which in extreme synthesis has not so much to do with a sexual vision of the human body as with the concept that nudity in nature, in free time or during physical activity can have benefits for people’s health.
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