Frankly ... integrated
Make Freibad great again!
Leaping into the marvellously cool, refreshing water, chips with ketchup and mayonnaise, see-through swimsuits – our columnist Sineb el Masrar has penned a paean to Freibäder, i.e. public outdoor pools, as havens of summertime bliss, as well as a plea for their preservation.
By Sineb El Masrar
Summer means time for a holiday! And kids aren’t the only ones who look forward to summer vacation. I was still painstakingly working my way through my to-do list when the summer holidays came to Berlin in July. Kids are now looking forward to time off from school, to sleeping in. For some, “school’s out for summer”; for others, those who’ve just graduated from high school, “school’s out forever” – though college may be just a few months away. Most of them will be spending the days and weeks ahead looking for a cool spot by the water, whether it be a big swimming pool or a little paddling pool for their wee brothers and sisters. Others will be cooling their heels in the Baltic or North Sea or flying abroad with their families to mutate into water babies. And many others will simply do what they were doing before the holidays kicked in: going to a Freibad, a public outdoor swimming pool.
My childhood summers were always a combination of the local lido and the Mediterranean Sea. Our village had an open-air swimming pool, to which my friends and I would cycle with our bags strapped to our bicycle racks. It was both our playground and a place to cool off in summer. That’s where I learnt to swim, where some of our phys. ed. classes were held and where I spent most of my free time. And that’s where I learnt that an all-white swimsuit was just about the dumbest purchase I’d ever made as a teenager, because as soon as the polyester Lycra fabric gets wet, it becomes virtually see-through – which isn’t exactly an enjoyable predicament, especially if you’re in the throes of puberty. It wasn’t sexy, cool or hip. Just an unnecessary embarrassment and a stupid choice on the part of the swimsuit manufacturer. So beware, dear Reader: Learn from my ill-advised purchase!
Besides wardrobe malfunctions, there was also an element of fear at the pool: of jumping off the high board. I was one of those standing at the pool’s edge, marvelling at the friends, classmates and grownups who had the courage to dive into the water from the three-metre springboard. As inviting as it was to take the plunge into that cool and dazzlingly clear blue water and swim back up to the surface, I was content with the slide, which was fun and, unlike high diving, safe.
But all of us, scaredy-cats and intrepid high divers alike, met up sooner or later at the chip shop, dripping wet and holding up wrinkled prune fingers to each other’s faces as if we’d just discovered new limbs on our bodies. We got chips with ketchup and mayonnaise. Soft drinks and the sweet multi-coloured splendour of Haribo Goldbears, followed by ice cream, which we hastily lapped up and bit off with our blue lips, shooting yet another dose of sugar into our brains and turning us into jittery pubescents. Deutschmarks happily changed hands over the counter and everyone was in high spirits, young and old alike. We lingered as long as we possibly could. Even when it rained and thundered, in which case we recalled what our teachers and parents had drilled into us: water and trees conduct lightning and can be fatal. That’s how even little wimps like me got to experience the ultimate kick of summertime adventure.
When aggressive confrontations and even fights at outdoor pools make the headlines nowadays, it also reminds us what a special place a public pool is. A place of temporary bliss and exuberance, of recreation – and learning: after all, learning to swim may not only prove lifesaving, but it also feels incredibly liberating. Our own halcyon days by the pool have left us with a duty to preserve and defend the cultural heritage of Freibäder, the way public outdoor pools were for us then and the way they are for folks now, with courage and fairness – and with respect for people’s privacy. So, all you wimps and high divers out there: Make Freibad great again!
“Frankly ...”
On an alternating basis, our “Frankly …” column series is written by Sineb El Masrar, Susi Bumms and Maximilian Buddenbohm. Sineb El Masrar writes about migration to and the multicultural society in Germany: What strikes her, what is strange, which interesting insights emerge?