As of: January 20, 2024, 7:05 a.m
By: Lukas Schierlinger
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The Müllersche Volksbad on the Isar was opened in 1901.
© Götzfried/Imago
The Müllersche Volksbad in Munich was once primarily used for personal hygiene.
Opened in 1901, it has been preserved almost true to the original for visitors.
Munich – “We are a kind of museum guard,” reported operations manager Erich Kühberger in a TV report on the 120th anniversary.
“Guests ask us a lot of questions about the history.” And with good reason.
The Müllersche Volksbad in der Au was opened in 1901.
At that time it was said to be the most expensive (cost: 1.8 million gold marks) and most modern bathing establishment in the world.
To this day, the Stadtwerke München (SWM) maintains the first municipal indoor swimming pool true to the original in almost every detail.
Back then, the bathroom in Munich served “primarily for personal hygiene.”
The spa on the Isar was a gift from its namesake to the city of Munich.
The engineer Karl Müller made his donation subject to one condition, as the municipal utility company informs: “Back then, the bathroom was primarily used for personal hygiene.
It should be available to the ‘poor people’, i.e. the people of Munich who didn’t have the luxury of their own bathroom at home.”
Carl Hocheder designed the Volksbad as a neo-baroque Art Nouveau building.
Sources of inspiration for the architect were Roman baths, religious buildings, hammams and mosques.
“In the bathroom there are numerous baroque decorative elements, wall paintings, stucco, decorated wooden and metal balustrades, gargoyles, bronze statues and decorated clocks,” describe the municipal utilities.
Gender segregation until 1989
It wasn't that long ago that splashing in the public pool was separated by gender.
Until 1989, the small swimming pool (18 meters) was designated as a “women’s pool” and the large one (31 meters) as a “men’s pool”.
The water in the “ladies’ pool,” which is still used for relaxation purposes today, is warmer.
Sports swimmers get their money's worth in the large indoor swimming pool.
Once strange dog service in the Müllersche Volksbad: hairdresser and warm air boxes
Only after bathtubs and showers gradually became commonplace in private households in Munich in the 20th century were the 86 bathtubs and 22 shower baths shut down.
The municipal utilities have preserved one of the original bathtubs.
Curious: Until 1978 there was a dog bath in the basement.
A dog hairdresser worked there and took care of cleaning the four-legged friends.
Warm air boxes were available in which the animals were properly dried.
Since it opened in 1901, the Volksbad has featured a Roman-Irish sweat bath with an open-air courtyard.
“It consists of warm and hot air rooms at different temperatures in which you can slowly warm up the body,” explain the municipal utilities.
In addition, visitors can use a steam bath, a Finnish sauna, a cold and a warm water pool.
In the Müllersche Volksbad, women and men swam separately until 1989.
© imago/Westend61
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During the Corona period, operations at the Volksbad had to stop for longer than planned.
The staff in the outdoor pools had become scarce.
Lifeguard Patrik was also deployed elsewhere, and after his return he enthused to our editorial team: “It's simply something for the eyes and for the soul.
I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.”
Over 230,000 visitors flocked to the Art Nouveau pool on the Isar in the anniversary year of 2021.
Current admission prices can be found on the Stadtwerke München homepage.
A tribute to tradition has remained: every Tuesday there is a women's swimming day in the small swimming pool.
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