Nudity Goes Legal In Munich

[Steven_Draker]

Forbes, April 14th 2014

 

http://www.edenism.com/world-nude-beach-guide/europe/images/germany_munich_englisher_2.jpg

 

Leave it to the Germans to allow naked people to roam freely…but only in certain places.

 

So goes the general reaction in Europe these days to the news that the city of Munich has given enthusiastic approval to allowing naked people to stroll freely and to sunbathe in public spaces.

 

This doesn’t mean that just anybody who feels like taking his or her clothes off can strip down everywhere. The city, according to the Atlantic Cities, has designated six official “Urban Naked Zones” in parks offering privacy, but also only minutes away from the busy city center.

 

“While these areas’ locations in parkland gives them a degree of seclusion, none of them are fenced off or hidden away,” the site reports. “One spot is barely 10 minutes from Munich’s main square, located along a stream to which tourists flock.”

 

The situation arose due to the recent expiration of legislation controlling nude sunbathing in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital. City leaders had to decide whether to allow sun-seekers to strip in public.

 

Around the continent, Germans have the reputation of being “nudist obsessive” as well as “tanning obsessive.” It’s no surprise that many nudist beaches around Europe are frequented mostly by Germans — as are saunas and Turkish baths, where it’s a safe assumption that the most comfortable naked body walking nearby belongs to a German.

 

“Germans are often considered to be more at one with nature than us prudish Brits,” the Mail Online commented.

 

Atlantic Cities reaches an interesting conclusion: “Allowing nude sunbathing in these six places, Munich is in many ways only acknowledging a practice that has gone on for years.”

 

In fact, Germany has allowed nude beaches since 1920, and in Munich the Englischer Garten has been a place for people hanging out in the buff since the 1960s. Its “Beautiful Meadow” area, Schonfeldweise, is considered a must-visit for nudist tourists.

 

Also a number of spots along some of the islands over the Isar River that runs through the city are public nudist refuges.

 

For Feargus O’Sullivan of Atlantic Cities, “what Germany does have is a strong exculture tradition that seeks to escape artifice and the pressures of city life to return to something supposedly more natural. Seen in this light, stripping off in public is the voluntary removal of a heavy mask, a return to unvarnished honesty rather than some titter-worthy peek-a-boo. Places where this is allowed to happen are spaces of truce, where there is a generally observed agreement that people will spare each other physical scrutiny and appraisal.”

 

In that context, by allowing naked sunbathing Munich is performing its public duty, simply acknowledging that even in the midst of a big city, nature and peace are to be enjoyed in a natural state.

 

“Whenever the sun is out, you’ll find Münchner of all ages, shapes and sizes catching some rays as nature intended,” writes the Mail Online. “It’s considered as much the perfect lunchtime escape from the stresses of a busy day for office workers as it a place for friends and families to gather at weekends, and the atmosphere is always convivial and laid-back,”

 

The site speculates that the park is named the English Garden because of its original horticultural style and “not as an ironic way of poking fun at traditional British prudery.”

 

source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2014/04/14/nudity-goes-legal-in-munich/

[rickvt]

There were several other news stories covering (pun intended) this story. Overall, I get the impression that nude sunbathing was showing up in a growing number of locations on a random basis. Therefore, the Munich officials decided it was better to designate some specific areas to "buff it". Boy, can you imagine if some major US cities designated some nude sunbathing areas? The sky would fall, the sky would fall....

[+ WilliamM]

Nudity is so common place in the Englischer Garten during the summer that it would have been very difficult to stop it. It's a very large park with many streams and sunbathing locations. Even with little, or no nudity the Englisher Garten is worth a visit if you are in Munich for several days. That photo is totally accurate.

[Epigonos]

I must admit that I totally disagreed with the way San Francisco handled the public nudity issue. I really don’t see the purpose or need for nudity in ALL public places. What is the purpose of doing grocery shopping in the nude? Some individuals and some parents with children might not appreciate the fact that some man or some woman standing in the check -out line with them is totally nude. Some might argue that the nude grocery shopper is not “physically” harming anyone but that is something of a false argument. Following that line of thinking there would be nothing wrong with a couple fucking on a bench at a public bus stop.

 

To my way of thinking the Munich solution makes total sense. I see absolutely nothing wrong in allowing public nudity in clearly designated areas in parks and on beaches. If these areas are clearly posted individuals who don’t want to be exposed to public nudity can easily avoid them. Several years ago the city of Santa Monica experimented with permitting nude sun bathing on certain public beaches. The beaches in Santa Monica are so deep that someone walking on the boardwalk would need binoculars to see an individual sun bathing near the shore line. Even with this fact many blue noses bitterly complained that they were offended by the practice and the city eventually ended the experiment.

[+ Charlie]

I really don’t see the purpose or need for nudity in ALL public places. What is the purpose of doing grocery shopping in the nude?

And where does one carry one's money or credit cards?

[BaronArtz]

I am glad that the people of Munich can enjoy freedoms rarely granted in metropolitan centers. On the other hand, I have gone to nude beaches myself and found it very disappointing. Clothes actually DO make people look better. Very few people have the physique to be seen nude in public.

[+ WilliamM]

I am glad that the people of Munich can enjoy freedoms rarely granted in metropolitan centers. On the other hand, I have gone to nude beaches myself and found it very disappointing. Clothes actually DO make people look better. Very few people have the physique to be seen nude in public.

 

That's different from my experience in Munich, Sydney and the Santa Cruz area of Northern California, and I would not call myself a person with a really stong sex drive. Could you give me some idea of where you went?

[+ FreshFluff]

And where does one carry one's money or credit cards?

 

One would need a man bag.

[+ Italiano]

I am glad that the people of Munich can enjoy freedoms rarely granted in metropolitan centers. On the other hand, I have gone to nude beaches myself and found it very disappointing. Clothes actually DO make people look better. Very few people have the physique to be seen nude in public.

 

I don't agree with yr finale statement, BaronArtz.

We go back a little to the "speedo" topic. Having been in Europe to nude beaches since I was an adolescent, apart from the initial (adolescents!...) morbid feeling of peeping eventually I learnt to feel totally comfortable and at ease with the environment around me. Whenever there is a possibility, I go to one. I never thought that people must have the physique in order to be naked or in a speedo or in a bikini. If we go back to the idea that only "beautiful" people should show their bodies, definitely on a beach even a trunk or full female whole swimsuit for women would show "imperfections" or rolls of fat of most people. Shouldn't they being allowed then in any beach?...

A nude beach or park (I went to Englisher Park in Munich in 1986 the first time, and found it very cool) is a place to go and enjoy personally and with others the great feeling of walking and/or swimming naked (if you of course enjoy that feeling) without the social obligation to be good looking and/or desirable.