Baltic Beach Battle
The Baltic Sea stretching from eastern Germany to Poland used to be a Mecca for beach bums who prefer skin to skivvies, but is an onslaught of prudish Western visitors spoiling the tradition?
Back in the days of Communism, as many as 90 percent of beach-goers along the East German-controlled stretch of the Baltic Sea preferred to bathe in their birthday suits, au natural. Fifteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it's a different story. Today, officials are buckling under pressure from tourists from western Germany who have demanded the nudists, known here as Free Body Culture (FKK), be pushed to the fringes of public beaches. According to a report by news agency Reuters, the tensions have pitted the nudes against the prudes. "I grew up being naked at the beach and it's the only way to spend the summer here," Susanne Koch, 31, told Reuters. "Being nude on the beach feels completely normal." To cover or uncover? The dispute, unfortunately, has also tapped into divisions between the eastern Germans and their western German neighbors, who sometimes pejoratively refer to each other as "Ossis" and "Wessis." "Western tourists are ruining the atmosphere," Koch said. "The tensions are unfortunate. They don't know what they're missing, It's a shame westerners are so intolerant." But the resort town of Warnemünde, a coastal outpost near Rostock, is one of many in the area that reply heavily on tourism for its survival. Officials in the town have divided the beaches between "textile" areas and "FKK" sections. And there are even reported incidents of nudists taking one false step and winding up with a handful of sand in their faces. Keen to cash in on their higher spending power, tourism officials have sought to appease visitors from the west like Dirk Richter of the central western city of Hanover. "I really don't want to see naked bodies all around me," he said. "It's not for everyone and it's often not a very attractive sight. It's tough luck for the natives if that's the way it used to be. Times change." But few believe the nudists will go without a fight -- including people like Maron Mock. "It's not fair," the 25-year-old primary school teacher said. "We're being pushed off our own beach into a crummy little zone on the edge. Being nude is not a crime!"
Baltic
Baltic Sea
Baltic_Sea Sea Curonian_Lagoon
Germany
Germany Germany_national_football_team Nazi_Germany German_Empire Germany_women's_national_football_team Weimar_Republic German_Football_Association ISU_Junior_Grand_Prix_in_Germany GfK_Entertainment_Charts Germany_national_youth_football_team A1_Team_Germany Germany_national_rugby_union_team Kingdom_of_Germany German_literature Germany_men's_national_ice_hockey_team Same-sex_marriage_in_Germany
Poland
Poland Poland_national_football_team Second_Polish_Republic Polish_People's_Republic ISU_Junior_Grand_Prix_in_Poland Polish_Football_Association Poland_national_speedway_team Polish–Lithuanian_Commonwealth List_of_non-marine_molluscs_of_Poland Recognition_of_same-sex_unions_in_Poland Kingdom_of_Poland_(1025–1385) Poland_women's_national_football_team Congress_Poland Poland_national_under-21_football_team Poland_men's_national_volleyball_team Poland_national_handball_team
Mecca
Mecca Mecca,_California Mecca,_Indiana Mecca_Leisure_Group Muhammad_in_Mecca Mecca_(song) Timeline_of_Mecca Mecca_Township,_Trumbull_County,_Ohio UW–Milwaukee_Panther_Arena Great_Mosque_of_Mecca Battle_of_Mecca_(1916) Mecca_(musician) Jeddah Makkah_Region Mecca,_Ohio Riverton_Parke_Junior-Senior_High_School
Western
Communism
Communism Communist_society Socialist_Republic_of_Romania Ideology_of_the_Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union People's_Socialist_Republic_of_Albania Anarcho-communism Marxism–Leninism Hungarian_People's_Republic Communist_state History_of_Poland_(1945–1989) Communism_in_Korea Socialism_in_Pakistan Anti-communism Communist_Party_of_Australia Communist_Party_of_China Communist_symbolism
East German
Baltic Sea
Baltic_Sea Sea Curonian_Lagoon
Berlin Wall
Germany
Germany Germany_national_football_team Nazi_Germany German_Empire Germany_women's_national_football_team Weimar_Republic German_Football_Association ISU_Junior_Grand_Prix_in_Germany GfK_Entertainment_Charts Germany_national_youth_football_team A1_Team_Germany Germany_national_rugby_union_team Kingdom_of_Germany German_literature Germany_men's_national_ice_hockey_team Same-sex_marriage_in_Germany
Free Body Culture
FKK
news agency
Reuters
Reuters Reuters_Group Thomson_Reuters Paul_Reuter Reuter
Susanne Koch
Reuters
Reuters Reuters_Group Thomson_Reuters Paul_Reuter Reuter
Germans
German
Ossis
Wessis
Western
Koch
Entertainment_One_Music Billy_Koch Rajbongshi_people Koch_Entertainment Carin_Koch Karl_Koch_(botanist) Koch_language Robert_Koch Ed_Koch Koch_(film) Koch_dynasty Michael_Koch_(basketball) Koch,_South_Sudan Fabian_Koch Kamata_Kingdom Koch_(crater)
Warnemünde
Warnemünde Warnemünde_station Rostock
Rostock
Rostock Rostock_(district) University_of_Rostock Rostock_Hauptbahnhof Bezirk_Rostock Lordship_of_Rostock Rostock–Laage_Airport Rostock_S-Bahn Warnemünde Rostock_People's_Theatre Trams_in_Rostock 2003_World_Horticultural_Exposition Perth_East,_Ontario Stralsund–Rostock_railway Bad_Kleinen–Rostock_railway
FKK
Dirk Richter
Dirk_Richter
Hanover
Hanover Hanover,_New_Hampshire Electorate_of_Brunswick-Lüneburg Kingdom_of_Hanover Hanover,_Pennsylvania Hanover_County,_Virginia Hannover_Hauptbahnhof House_of_Hanover Hanover,_Ontario Hanover_(horse) Hanover,_Massachusetts Hanover_Parish Hanover,_Maryland Hanover,_Indiana Hanover,_Brighton Province_of_Hanover
Maron Mock
Free Body Culture
Freikörperkultur
meta::todo slot::keyword
Baltic Sea
Baltic_Sea
slot::in slot::keyword topic::none type::entity type::location type::waterbody
Germany
Germany
slot::in slot::keyword topic::none type::entity type::gpe type::gpe0 type::location
Susanne Koch
gender::female meta::todo topic::none type::entity type::person
Baltic
topic::none type::loc-x type::other
Poland
Poland
topic::none type::entity type::gpe type::gpe0 type::location
Mecca
Mecca
topic::none type::entity type::gpe type::gpe2 type::location
Western
topic::none type::loc-x type::other
Communism
Communism
iptc::11000000 topic::politics type::entity type::ideology
East German
topic::none type::gpe0-x type::other
Berlin Wall
Berlin_Wall
meta::todo
news agency
topic::none type::role type::value
Reuters
Reuters
topic::media type::entity type::media type::organization
Germans
topic::none type::gpe0-x type::other
German
topic::none type::gpe0-x type::other
Ossis
topic::none type::loc-x type::other
Wessis
topic::none type::loc-x type::other
Warnemünde
Warnemünde
topic::none type::entity type::gpe type::gpe2 type::location
Rostock
Rostock
topic::none type::entity type::gpe type::gpe2 type::location
Dirk Richter
gender::male meta::todo topic::none type::entity type::person
Hanover
Hanover
topic::none type::entity type::gpe type::gpe2 type::location
Maron Mock
meta::todo topic::none type::entity type::person
East_Germany
Saudi_Arabia