When the bath water came out of the Sempt

Hardly any other place awakens so many memories of their childhood in the people of Erding as the old swimming pool at the city park.

A review.

Erding - Thomas Schöberl, who looks after the “Historisches Erding” page on Facebook, can confirm.

Hardly any other place awakens as many memories of their childhood as the old swimming pool at the Stadtpark: “No sooner have I posted a photo of the old swimming pool than countless comments come in raving about the changing rooms with peepholes, the sun boards or the kiosk. ”Time to look back.

The old swimming pool was officially put into operation in 1914 with a grand opening ceremony.

But since 1902 there was a small pool with a wooden fence around it.

Admission was free at the time, but strict rules prevailed, as can be read in a notice from the city council from 1902: The bather had to use swimming trunks, and if you violated the rule, you could be expelled from the place by the bathing attendant.

The water came from the Sempt - and was ice cold

After the expansion and modernization in 1914, the bathroom had a 60-meter pool, a children's paddling pool, two changing rooms, two shower halls, numerous individual and changing cubicles and a large sunbathing area.

At the time, the water was directed from the Sempt at the level of the Heilig-Geist-Altenheim into a preheater before it was let into the basin a few days later.

That's what Walter Rauscher tells.

The 74-year-old Erdinger grew up on Münchner Straße and has been active in the water rescue service for more than 60 years.

“In addition to leaves, leeches, earthworms and small crustaceans also got into the preheater,” he says with a smile.

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Like to remember (from left): the Erdinger Hermann Kraus, Walter Rauscher and Josef and Eduard Erhard in front of the green area at the city park, where the old swimming pool was once.

The bath keeper's house (right) is still standing.

© Peter Gebel

Even after warming up, the water in the pool was freezing cold.

“As boys, we always took a short break on the hot, tarred path to heat up,” recalls Hermann Kraus (77), senior manager of the Kraus am Eck fashion house.

With an entrance fee of 10 pfennigs, the Erdinger children spent almost every afternoon in the swimming pool, where they usually did a little shopping at the kiosk.

This was right next to the house that still exists today with an entrance area and ticket office.

Sweets, broken waffles and homemade ice cream in the kiosk

From 1946 to 1959, the bath attendant Susanna Erhard lived there with her husband and their sons Josef and Eduard. Josef Erhard (74), retired ministerial director, still remembers the noise of bathers who disturbed his afternoon nap as a toddler. And his brother Edi (73) raves: "When we were children, we had a huge playground."

In addition to sweets, lollipops and broken waffles, the ice cream made by the Erhard family was also a hit in the kiosk.

“The father ran a self-made ice machine in the laundry room, then we got the ice cream from the foundation, added cattle salt and made vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and banana.

If the bathing day ended prematurely due to an impending thunderstorm, the water watchmen had to line up and eat the rest of the ice cream because it could not be cooled, ”reports Josef Erhard.

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The access to the swimming pool was at the old bath keeper's house.

It hasn't changed much over the years.

© Private

The water watch station in the old swimming pool was opened in 1950 under the chairmanship of Josef Seibold, later the DLRG also had a watch station here.

In addition to the security service, swimming courses were offered on an ongoing basis, but swimming licenses were also removed, explains Rauscher, who has been giving swimming courses since he was 18.

The municipal bathroom washers were responsible for cleaning the pool, supported by the water rescue service.

“If the water got too cloudy, the lifeguard drained it in the evening.

Then the floor was cleaned of the slippery algae with the scrubber, ”Rauscher remembers.

Tar stains on the feet: "Mother treated them with butter"

The cloudy water was also dangerous when suddenly a small child was lost.

“All bathers had to get out immediately.

Then we staggered the pool next to each other.

After that, people were able to come back in, ”says Rauscher and is happy that the children mostly reappeared undamaged shortly afterwards.

The children had a lot of fun jumping from the one- and two-meter board, but the two-man was dismantled later because of the risk of injury at a water depth of only 2.20 meters.

Popular games were "Wasser-Fangste", "Fangste around the corner" or "Taucher-Fangste", as Rauscher reports.

That was "fitness training to the power of three".

Before the beginning of the bathing season, the paths were freshly paved by Hans Holler from the building yard.

City mason Hans Glück repaired the holes.

“After that, we had tar stains on our feet for a few weeks, which our mother treated with butter,” say the Erhard brothers.

To improve the water quality, the pool attendant put chlorine tablets into the pool “by feeling”. Later, a pump system with filtering was installed that pumped ground water at 13 degrees into the pool.

At night they met for night bathing

Those who did not want to show themselves publicly in the bathroom could rent a water cabin that enabled access to the pool without contact with other bathers. The normal changing rooms also had their special features. Above all, the knotholes were popular with the boys, as they allowed unimagined insights. Next to the swimming pool entrance there were changing cubicles with a small peep window. The moment will not be forgotten when the responsible Rosa Wachter opened the window too early and asked: “Are you ready?” Rauscher recalls with a laugh.

Another highlight were the sun boards directly on the wooden fence, where many bathers had their regular seats.

The boards were dismantled over the winter to protect them from the weather, explains Edi Erhard.

"Every clique had their family tree on the lawn, and the private soccer team from Kraus-Eck trained in the back area," adds Hermann Kraus.

The popular night-time nude bathing of the young Erdinger was disrupted when an overzealous police officer moved in next to the swimming pool.

He confiscated the young people's clothes and reported them.

When the unheard-of incident came to trial, the accused were acquitted by Judge Heinrich Kratzer because nobody wanted to have heard or seen anything.

In 1972 the swimming pool was closed

Bath attendant Susanna Erhard had a lot to do. The young student Hans Kofler was placed at her side as the official lifeguard, and later a teacher for sports and chemistry at the Erdinger Gymnasium. He was considered very strict. In the event of a misconduct, the culprit had to free the large lawn of litter as a punishment. If there was little activity in bad weather, Kofler, as an enthusiastic golfer, perfected his tee shot on the meadow. "There are still plenty of golf balls in the Sempt," suspects Edi Erhard with a smile.

Ms. Maxbauer and her two children also lived in the pool keeper's house with the Erhard family. Son Hermann later took over the post of lifeguard. Ingrid Stanzel-Deffner's grandmother did her job as a lifeguard here in the 1920s. To do this, she first had to learn to swim, says Hermann Kraus. Her father Hans was able to dive straight into the pool with a jump from the gutter next to his room on the upper floor.

In 1972 the popular swimming pool at the Stadtpark was closed - after the completion of the new outdoor pool on Anton-Bruckner-Straße.

The area on Hiasl-Maier-Strasse remained vacant.

Today it is an extensive recreational area.

The caretaker's house in which Sepp and Edi Erhard spent their childhood has been preserved almost unchanged.

They agree with Walter Rauscher and Hermann Kraus: "It was a great time in the oiden swimming pool."

Gerda and Peter Gebel