Cologne: Important council party demands topless permission for women in swimming pools

Created: 05/19/2022, 20:31

By: Max Mueller

A case from Göttingen is making headlines nationwide: women have been allowed to swim topless there since May 1st.

Will that soon also be allowed in Cologne?

Cologne – Last August, a woman in an indoor swimming pool in Göttingen has nothing on at the top.

Bathers speak to her, the staff discusses with her.

What they don't know at first: The person does not define themselves as a woman and - like other men - does not want to cover their breasts.

The case ends up before the city's athletic board.

The result: Since May 1, 2022, women in Göttingen have been allowed to go swimming "topless" every weekend.

The topic has also arrived in Cologne, where the outdoor pool season has been running since May 18th.

The Cologne faction of the Volt party demands: "Women, just like men, should only be able to go swimming in swimming trunks if they want to," according to the pro-European movement, which was founded in 2017.

"The city of Cologne should not miss its chance to play a pioneering role here throughout Germany - like in Göttingen." Together with the Greens, Volt submitted a request to the Equal Opportunities Committee, which is to be discussed on June 13, as reported by 24RHEIN.

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The Volt party forms an alliance with the Greens and the CDU in the Cologne City Council.

Topless in the water in Cologne?

That's what the KölnBäder say

The new rules would have to be implemented in the Cologne swimming pools.

What do you think of the proposal there?

“In principle, we welcome it when politicians deal with contemporary issues.

But it is also clear that there are no plans to change the existing bathing rules for the current outdoor swimming season," explains Franziska Graalmann, press spokeswoman for KölnBäder GmbH, when asked by 24RHEIN

"The fact that women go swimming topless is not an issue for us - neither this year nor in previous years." However, that was quite different.

"There are pictures from the 1970s in Cologne's open-air swimming pools, where a lot of women didn't cover their breasts." There is still no fundamental ban today - but only when sunbathing on the sunbathing lawn.

Different rules apply in the pool.

A look at the bathing regulations helps here: "Women are not allowed to go into the water topless." But what happens if, as in the case of Göttingen, a person defines themselves as a man even though they look more like a woman?

"That wouldn't make any difference," Graalmann clarifies.

That means: It's about how you are perceived from the outside, not about which gender you feel you belong to.

Movement demands topless rights for women

The question of what swimwear should look like in Cologne's swimming pools is also clearly regulated.

"The primary and secondary sexual characteristics must be covered," explains Graalmann.

In addition, the fabric must not be made of cotton and must dry quickly.

Otherwise: more tightening is always allowed.

"Women can also go into the water with a burkini," says Graalmann.

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Why is a male shirtless torso okay, but bare breasts are not?

This question is not only asked by activists in Göttingen or the Volt party.

Movements are being formed across Germany that demand topless rights for all people – at least for places where men are allowed to show themselves bare-chested.

They demand gender equality and the de-sexualization of the female body.

In Berlin in the summer of 2021 there was a bicycle demo with the motto: "No nipple is free until all nipples are free!" (No nipple is free until all nipples are free) to protest against a covering requirement in parks.

Swimming for transsexuals in Cologne

Every fourth Friday of the month, the Genoveva-Bad in Cologne-Mülheim is reserved from 8:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. for people who define themselves as transsexual or intersexual.

History of Swimwear: Bikini Bans in the 50's

Already in the last century, women were prescribed by regulation how they have to dress when bathing.

The so-called gusset decree of 1932 said that women could only bathe in public if they wore a bathing suit that fully covered the chest and abdomen at the front of the upper body and was tight under the arms.

In the 1950s and 1960s there were bikini bans in swimming pools or on beaches, which were only lifted in the course of the student movement and the associated sexual liberation.

A look at other European countries shows that the dress code in swimming pools is regulated differently.

In France, for hygiene reasons, many campsites have pools

long or loose swimming trunks prohibited.

Anyone who has ever been to an Italian swimming pool will know that wearing a bathing cap is mandatory there.

Season starts in May: outdoor pools in Cologne

• Lentpark natural bathing pond (Cologne city center district)

• Zündorbad (Cologne-Porz district)

• Natural swimming pool Vingst (Cologne-Kalk district)

• Höhenbergbad (Cologne-Kalk district)

• Stadionbad in Müngersdorf (Cologne-Lindenthal district)

• Waldbad Dünnwald (Cologne-Mülheim district)

• Zollstockbad (District of Cologne-Rodenkirchen)

• Ossendorfbad (Cologne-Ehrenfeld district)

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