The Berlin state government said Thursday that women will soon be able to swim topless in the city’s public pools alongside males.
Following a discrimination claim by a woman who was denied the right to swim topless in a swimming pool in the capital, new bathing regulations were implemented permitting everyone to do so.
The Berlin senate for justice, diversity, and anti-discrimination stated in a written statement that an unnamed woman went to the senate’s ombudsperson’s office asking for equal treatment. She wanted women to be allowed to swim without covering their torsos just as males were able to.
The city’s public pool operator, Berliner Baederbetriebe, changed its dress code in response to the complaint.
Doris Liebscher, head of the ombudsperson’s office, said her office “very much welcomes the decision of the Baederbetriebe, because it establishes equal rights for all Berliners, whether male, female or non-binary and because it also creates legal certainty for the staff at the Baederbetriebe.”
Berlin pools used to ask women who exposed their breasts to cover up or leave the water, and they sometimes forbade them from coming back.
“Now it is important that the regulation is applied consistently and that no more expulsions or house bans are issued,” stated Liebscher.
When the new bathing regulations would go into effect is not immediately known.
