Landsberg's jewel: »Bathing on the island«

Created: 06/28/2022, 08:22

By: Susanne Greiner

Museum director Sonia Fischer (left, standing) had to interrupt her speech on the opening night of the exhibition because of a brief hailstorm.

© ks

Landsberg – The Inselbad is celebrating its 50th anniversary just in time for its last summer in its current form.

From the end of the season in autumn, the extensive renovation of the pool, which opened on June 29, 1972, is to start.

The Municipal Museums of Landsberg are taking the anniversary as an opportunity to focus on the Inselbad and its importance for the people of Landsberg.

But it's not just about the 'birthday pool': its history and predecessors are also highlighted.

It is not for nothing that the title of the exhibition is "Baden auf der Insel". 

Banners in front of the pool tell the story of the bathing spot on the Lech in a condensed form, inside, banners with interviews conducted by museum director Sonia Fischer and her team adorn the walls: people who have a special connection with the pool tell anecdotes, memories and shed light on it so what the bathroom means to them.

There is more detailed information and photos including interviews in the accompanying catalogue.

Although 'catalogue' is the wrong word: the result is a high-quality book full of knowledge and stories.

"Can you lose your heart to a swimming pool?

We Landsbergers know: Yes, you can.” Mayor Doris Baumgartl welcomed the invited guests on Monday evening, who were involved in the creation of the exhibition catalogue.

50 years have not left any building untouched - which is why the renovation is now urgently needed.

The "charm" of the pool will be retained in its indissoluble combination with Lechstrand: "The existing is what the heart is attached to." Where the sculptures such as panthers and bears will end up in the renovated pool is not yet entirely clear.

"But where the panther is, I think it's in the right place."

»Always a lido«

Sonia Fischer is immediately interrupted by hail as she greets the guests.

A regular island swimmer assured her that "swimming is best when it's raining," Fischer continues after the shower.

She reports on the history of the bathing resort on the island: "Although the Inselbad was always a bathing beach".

This is what the first public swimming pool in Landsberg looked like: the old military pool from around 1914 with changing rooms.

© Photo collection Erich Schmid

Landsberg is almost a pioneer in Germany when it comes to a public swimming pool: the first public swimming pool in Germany opened in Hamburg in 1855.

Landsberg followed suit only ten years later: with a municipal, or more precisely a military, swimming school for the Jäger battalion roughly where the IKG is now located.

"Strictly speaking, there has been a public swimming pool in Landsberg for 157 years, even if not at the current location," Fischer writes in her catalogue.

There were public and monitored bathing areas before, for example below the mother tower with covered changing rooms, at the Papierfleck or in the Pössinger Au.

While it was more of a game for children, adults had to clean themselves: on Saturdays and on the evenings before a public holiday, the water was drained to 1.52 meters,

says Fisher.

Women were not allowed to go to the military swimming pool until the beginning of the 20th century - at separate opening times.

Previously, they could use "bathrooms" on the east bank above the Karolinenbrücke, sitting pools with cold Lech water that were created in 1887 and that were visited according to "doctor's orders".

Despite the military swimming pool, a public bathing area was also created on the island at the same time – initially only for men.

The then 'bath club' had built a hut there, which the city bought from him.

From about 1920 women were allowed to swim there, and there was even a lifeguard.

Jews, on the other hand, were forbidden entry from 1937.

The first Inselbad: the Volksbad, built in 1939. © Stadtwerke LL

The predecessor of today's Inselbad, the Volksbad, was opened in 1939.

A 50 meter long and 14 meter wide pool, called the "Landsberg bathing paradise on the island" in the newspaper at the time, including a diving tower and fence-free access to the bathing area on the island - which is therefore the oldest part of the bathing area at this point.

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Learning to swim wasn't the top priority back then.

In the interviews with people from Landsberg, which can be found in the catalogue, the "Silverswimmers", six women who have been coming to the Inselbad since childhood, say: "Into the water: either you made it or you went under." The water in the first Inselbad Erich Schmid from the Lechstrand Association describes it as "rather gray", "always cloudy" - and above all cold.

And Sepp Wörsching still remembers with a certain horror the swimming trunks that his mother knitted for him from leftover white wool.

With the construction of today's pool in 1972 came the "sea surf", writes city archivist Elke Müller: the wave pool.

The fact that a new building was built was also due to the flood in 1970, which massively damaged the old pool.

3,550 cubic meters of concrete, 3,200 square meters of tiles and 15,000 square meters of rolled turf were used for the new building.

The catalog

The texts in the "Baden auf der Insel" catalog are more detailed and address other aspects.

It's about the Lechstrand and "the age-old love affair with the river and the Lech" of the Landsbergers, as Peter Pechtold, Chairman of the Lechstrand Association, says.

But it's also about the five sculptures in the bathroom – all of which have since been cleaned and restored where needed.

Sonia Fischer promised on the opening night that the javelin thrower would soon be carrying a bronze javelin again.

As far as the story of the characters is concerned, the panther is at the forefront.

According to Karla Schönebeck's contribution, it was on display as early as 1937 at the Great German Art Exhibition in the House of History in Munich.

In the 3rd Reich, however, the panther had its permanent place at the air base.

In the 1950s he came to the mother tower and sometime between 1972 and 1974 he was finally placed in the Inselbad, where he has since been rewarded with petting for his service as an eye-catcher, towel holder and warm-up seat and, above all, the bronze has been well cared for.

On the opening night, Sonia Fischer asks you to stroke the panther's belly as well, because that's where the salt crystals from the dripping water collect.

The panther has been freshly cleaned - and should be stroked on the stomach.

© ks

In addition, the catalog contains numerous photos with exciting insights and perspectives, information on the current planning and interviews with Inselbad fans and Inselbad employees: for example Sigrid Knollmüller, for whom the pool is closely connected to her grandfather;

the "Silverswimmer" with the bathroom as a "second home";

the first swimming champion Hermann Treichl and the current one, Christian Wappler.

All in all, the catalog is a bundle of concentrated knowledge, the bathroom from every perspective.

In short: a catalog that tells a story: the "Island Pool Story".