Freikörperkultur - German nude culture

For many in the swinger world, nudity is natural and many also engage in nudism, naturism and nude bathing.

But even if in Sweden we are increasingly starting with nude bathing, it is still strongly limited to certain excellent bathing spots.

But in Germany you have your Freikörperkultur, which is at a completely different level of acceptance of nudity than in Sweden and the rest of the world.

Freikörperkultur (FKK) is based on the right to a free body in the open. Here you can not only swim and sunbathe naked, but also play sports, camp, eat and parachute naked.

FKK areas are also common inside the cities in parks and lakes.

Conservative Munich, with its city park Englischer Garten, is a pioneer in the FKK area.

At the beginning of the 80s, with the help of the police, they tried to drive away all nude sunbathers and nude bathers, but this was unsuccessful and instead two areas in the park were turned into FKK areas.

So while Swedish nudists and naturists stick to certain selected bathing suits by the sea, you can see naked Germans in the middle of the cities and no one thinks this is strange, except for the tourists of course.

FKK began in Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century. The Berliners lived cramped and dirty and they longed to get away from the city and out into the country to improve their health with sun, bathing and fresh air.

The first FKK beach was on the island of Sylt in the 1920s and is still very popular among FKK followers today. It is estimated that around 60% bathe naked.

When the Nazis took power, FKK decreased but did not disappear completely, but was allowed to remain but under certain rules.

After the war, when Germany was divided into East and West, FKK continued to live in West Germany, but in East Germany FKK was considered a moral crime and was banned until 1956. 

But the people of East Germany demonstrated and wrote protest lists and continued to sunbathe and pray naked.

It could even degenerate into physical assaults where bathers with their clothes on were forcibly stripped. Finally the regime gave up and allowed FKK on some marked beaches. 

In the 1970s FKK developed into a large popular movement and in 1982 there were 40 official FKK beaches in East Germany and in 1988 60. Perhaps the nudity was a silent protest against living in a dictatorship.

Today, FKK is most widespread among the former East Germans, while the West Germans are somewhat more reserved.