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The nudist beach is a stereotypical cultural asset of the Germans. But that doesn’t mean that the nudist culture is self-evident in people’s minds. A Berliner had to experience that in December – when her breasts unleashed a police operation.

Now an ombudsman’s office has decided: even people with “female breasts” are allowed to swim topless in Berlin.

Free choice of clothing for everyone

In Berlin, one thing is clear: Anyone swimming in one of the 56 pools must wear “standard swimwear” according to house rules. The 33-year-old lifeguard Lotte Mies experienced firsthand that ‘commercial swimwear’, especially for women, must correspond to a social concept. When she did her lengths in a Berlin indoor swimming pool in December, she wore swimming trunks but no bikini top. The police were called.

“The policeman asked me what gender I identify with. When I said ‘woman’, it meant I had to wear a top,” Mies told the “Bild”. She then called the ombudsman service of the State Office for Equal Treatment – and they now agreed with her.

The date on which the decision was announced is symbolic: on International Women’s Day, the Judiciary Senate announced that topless swimming should also be possible in the future for “female people or for people with a breast read as a woman”. The pool staff has been instructed accordingly.

The free choice of clothing now applies to everyone in Berlin in Badis. And so men can “of course wear a bikini if ​​they like it,” says Claudia Blankennagel of the Berliner Bäder-Betriebe against “Bild”.

“Same breast for everyone”

A similar story took place last summer in the German town of Goettingen.

At that time, Mina Berger was not allowed to enter a public swimming pool – because Berger was “topless” in the sun. Because the swimming pool determines that Mina Berger is a woman on the basis of external sexual characteristics – and Berger therefore violates the bathing regulations with her topless appearance. Berger identifies as non-binary and not female.

Last May, Göttingen’s sports committee then drew the fallout from the incident and allowed all swimmers to visit swimming pools without outerwear, at least on weekends. After all, equality two days a week in Göttingen.

Both the Berliner Mies and Berger are part of the feminist alliance “Same Breasts for All”, which advocates that all people who want to be bare-chested should be allowed to show themselves.

By the way: In the local swimming pools, the user regulations almost always expressly prohibit blundering. However, topless sunbathing is tolerated. In addition, some pools have nudist areas, such as the Katzensee in Zurich.

Despite the loose usage regulations: most women in Swiss bathing establishments still cover their breasts with textiles. Basel history professor Caroline Arni explained it to the NZZ as follows:

(yum)