Berlin, Germany
Our friends were looking forward to our return from Germany, but not to ask us about the sights of Berlin, the Christmas markets of Frankfurt or Ronneburg Castle. No, the main question that interested everyone was - did you really go to a German bath? and is it true that everyone there is naked? Today, without any cuts or complexes, I’m telling you everything as it happened.
A little dry theory
In Germany (and also in Austria, keep in mind if you are going to ski resorts) there are very unique bath traditions. Locals consider it unhygienic, wrong and even possibly disgusting to bathe in synthetic swimsuits. It seems like these newfangled materials are harmful and unsafe. But at the same time, all German baths are shared - and traditionally men, women, children and old people go to the “therms” completely naked. This doesn’t bother anyone except the numerous Russian tourists who end up there either by accident or out of curiosity. In the first case, the reaction of our people is mainly negative, and in the second, it is not entirely adequate.
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Washing complexes
In Germany you can find a large number of large bathhouse complexes, which often resemble not only bathhouses, but rather water parks. Such establishments are usually divided into several sections depending on their purpose.
These could be sections with huge swimming pools. In this case, pools can be shallow or deep, filled with cold or hot water. Often there are pools with slides with special descents. A sector with premises for thermal procedures, such as hammam, hydromassage and others, is required in a bath complex. Next to the sauna there is always an area with sun loungers for relaxing from the heat.
What does the sauna process look like?
You come to the bathhouse, pay for the amount of time you need according to the tariff and go to the locker room. Further, the situation differs from the rules in a particular bathhouse - in some you can leave the locker room in a swimsuit, robe or at least a towel, but you will be required to take them off in the steam room or pool. In others, all your embarrassment along with your clothes must be left in the locker room - immediately behind it is the “Freikörperkultur” space. However, no one can forbid you to wear a towel or a robe made of natural materials, but you will look like a black sheep. In the steam room, you can also wrap yourself in a towel, but then you must have two of them, because one must be placed on the shelf in the steam room (so as not to drip your sweat onto it).
This is where all the dubious features end and the pleasant things begin. Each bathhouse has many steam rooms for every taste - Finnish saunas, Turkish hammams, infrared saunas, salt saunas, etc. and so on. Moreover, there can be several of each type, including those with different temperatures (for example, 80,90,110). At the exit from the sauna, two plunge pools will be waiting for you - with ice and hot water, as well as a tub of ice water that you can tip over yourself. There are also areas where you can sit and soak your feet in hot water. Every bathhouse must have a swimming pool, and even more than one, including an outdoor pool that you can swim into from the main one. Both inside and outside there is a relaxation area with sun loungers. Steamed after the steam rooms, refreshed in the pool, you lie down on one of them, grabbing water, tea or a glass of wine from the bar. To say it's a thrill is to say nothing! You can also get a massage, but such a pleasure in Europe is not for budget travelers.
There is also such a thing in German baths as aufguss. This is not another type of perversion, but just succumbing to steam rooms with various herbs and aromatic oils. They happen, like everything else in German life, according to a strict schedule. At a certain time, a specially trained person enters the steam room, pours water with all sorts of additives onto the stones, and then waves a towel towards those steaming. To be honest, we missed the aufguss on our entry, but according to reviews the feeling was very cool.
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Why do Germans like shared saunas but not separate ones?
In Munich it is almost impossible to find a bathhouse where there are two sections - women's and men's. The baths are all mixed, sometimes one day is allocated entirely to women. But the price of visiting on such days increases almost five times. And I must say that women’s days in saunas are popular only among foreigners.
Recently I read a blog of a Finnish girl. She lived in Munich for about two years and described her impressions. The worst thing, she writes, that she managed to experience here was visiting the local saunas. This is truly an attraction not for the faint of heart. In shared saunas, it’s not very decent to wrap yourself in towels.
But this is only one manifestation of what is called Freikörperkultur in German. That is, “free body culture.”
On our first visit to the English Garden in Munich - and it was almost immediately after moving - we saw a sign stuck into the lawn. It was covered in exclamation marks and seemed threatening. Well, probably something is prohibited here, my husband and I decided.
Upon reading it turned out the opposite. The sign was intended for bigots and other guardians of public morality and informed that it was allowed to swim and sunbathe naked in this particular place in the garden. Therefore, if someone is offended by the sight of someone's naked body, he can look for another place to walk.
Free body culture in Germany is over a hundred years old. Those who preach it claim that it has nothing to do with releasing sexuality - rather, it is a way to improve one's health.
German law allows nudists to appear on public beaches. Moreover, if you decide to let your body breathe - as it is called here - in a public place, it is quite possible that you will not be fined for it. Of course, if your behavior is not of a sexual nature.
In your apartment or garden, you have every right to wear whatever you want. And it doesn’t matter that children see this - they see it from birth, because at least they regularly go to swimming pools and saunas with their parents. For example, all summer we could not help watching our neighbor take a shower in her garden, and tourists walking through Schwabing (the central district of Munich) were surprised to see crowds of naked people sunbathing on balconies. Pale-skinned Germans embrace the sun with such ferocity that you actually begin to perceive their nudism as part of some kind of treatment program.
The nudist market in Germany, if you can call it that, is quite extensive. About ten million Germans go on vacation to nudist beaches every year. Many choose France and Croatia, where they are sympathetic to Freikörperkultur. But in Germany (mainly in the north of the country, which is understandable, because there is a sea) there are famous naturist resorts. Travel agencies sell a variety of tour packages for nudists. Vouchers to golf resorts, camping sites, cruises and even safaris for nudists are popular.
In Munich alone there are fourteen places where you can officially appear naked. I simply can’t imagine how many such places there are in the area – and we have a lot of lakes. When I read expats discussing the Germans' passion for nudism, I am surprised and sometimes laugh. These people have long been tolerant of many things, but a naked dude in the English Garden makes them uncomfortable. The forums where they write about all this bring back memories of the golden school years: everyone chuckles embarrassedly into their fists, discusses naked girls and makes dirty jokes. Rare people write seriously: “I feel uncomfortable when I realize that on the beach or in the sauna I am the only one who is dressed. At first I laughed too. But for a year now I’ve been calmly taking off my clothes and ceasing to be a black sheep.”
Freikörperkultur is something inviolable and sacred for the Germans. Since 1898, when the first group of naturists appeared in Essen, free-body culture has been persecuted only once - of course, during Nazi Germany. But with the development of new technologies, this subculture is again experiencing difficulties.
It is the Germans - more precisely, the leaders of German nudist associations - who are the loudest against the rules adopted on social networks - primarily on Facebook. And these rules prohibit publishing photographs of naked people. Adherents, I would even say, carriers of Freikörperkultur believe that the hypocrisy of social networks has turned them into marginalized people.
In general, Freikörperkultur is still a vital part of German life. Therefore, please, when talking to Germans, do not call it colorfulness. They may be offended.
Katya Shcherbakova, Munich
My experience in the thermal baths of Berlin
In general, I have never suffered from a craving for nudism (although who will believe me now), and it’s somehow not very interesting to look at others, but I really wanted to relax in a bathhouse after three days of running around Berlin. Well, since this is a local specialty, you can combine business with pleasure - take a steam bath and try something that is much talked about.
In our bathhouse you only had to undress in the steam rooms; throughout the rest of the area they wore bathrobes, and in the pool you had to wear a swimsuit. Like any normal person, undressing for the first time was awkward. It seemed to me that we would enter the steam room and everyone there was dressed, and only my friend and I were like two fools)) But no, in fact everyone was sitting or lying on the towel they had taken off.
There is semi-darkness in the steam room and without special efforts you won’t be able to see your neighbor. The Germans themselves go to the baths often and have already seen so many naked bodies that two more can hardly surprise them. If someone looks at another person, they do it as discreetly as possible - indecently) But only those who specifically came for this will be considered - for example, Russians)) Such people are usually given away by a wild look, and you can simply stay away from them. We went to a new and quite expensive establishment, the cost of which eliminates the undesirable contingent. In general, there were few people, and often we sat in the steam room or hammam together.
Overall, we had a great time - everything in the bathhouse was very high quality and beautifully done, we steamed, swam, and at the end drank a glass of wine on the sun loungers overlooking the garden. Have a rest! As for bare features - in Germany this should be taken for granted. You can not? Then just don't go. I can't say that I like it, but it has to be done. I saw these people for the first and last time in my life. I couldn’t go with friends and colleagues like the Germans))
A man's view of German baths
Our Vanya is just from that category of people who go to a German bathhouse out of curiosity. Of course, he examined everyone, but he assures that he did it as inconspicuously as possible, so as not to confuse anyone and not to look like a fool himself. He says there were some pretty girls, but not many)
In the bathhouse where he and his friend went, you had to be naked everywhere - even in the pool.
Another difference is that their thermal baths had many more steam rooms, and the pool had access (or swimming) to the street. Their cost of visiting was lower, and therefore the contingent was simpler. There were several Turks huddled in the pool, who probably didn’t just come to take a steam bath.
In general, Vanya’s impressions are even more pleasant - he wanted to go to the German baths, he went to the baths. I think he will repeat it at the first opportunity)
Division by gender
The main difference between bathhouse rules in the country is that they accommodate representatives of both sexes and all ages at the same time. Thus, the baths are not divided into zones depending on gender.
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It is very rare to find women's days in individual establishments. This custom of performing bath rituals together arose in ancient times. In this way, the indigenous people saved supplies of firewood needed to fire the bathhouse.
Regarding photos and videos in German baths
I've been surfing the Internet, and the most popular request for German baths is related to photos and videos. So, my little lovers of XXX footage, entering the bathhouse with phones is strictly prohibited, and since everyone in the steam rooms is naked, I can hardly imagine where you can hide even a small camera. Therefore, basically all the photos on the network are staged. And this is good, hardly anyone wants to be filmed as a souvenir.
Rules
There are also certain unspoken rules in place on the territory of the bathhouse complexes. For example, photography and video recording are not carried out in these premises. It is also not customary to look at visitors and comment on their appearance.
In general, German bathing traditions differ quite significantly from similar traditions in other countries. Therefore, many foreigners are shocked when encountering them for the first time. However, for brave people, visiting such an establishment can be an interesting experience of getting to know another culture.
