With a demonstration in the water, the Verein Rullbad Berlin wants to sign a sign of the lifting of the bathing ban on May 20 in the Spree set. The background is the 100th anniversary of the bathing ban in the inner -city Spree, as it says on the association’s website. “Call it a demo, we call it bathing fun.” The club points to cities like Amsterdam, Basel, Bochum, Halle an der Saale, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Munich or Vienna, in which bathing in rivers is allowed in the middle of the city. This is still prohibited in Berlin.
And that since May 20, 100 years ago, when the Berlin magistrate decided to close all river bathing establishments in Alt-Berlin. At that time the reason was the quality of the Spree water, which was questionable from a hygienic point of view.
Association relies on regular water examinations
The non -profit association has been committed to swimming again in the middle of the city in the Spree for years and has campaigned for a river pool on the Spree Canal next to the Humboldt Forum. “Fortunately, the factual problems are much less than originally thought,” said founding member Jan Edler of the German Press Agency.
The water is better than initially thought. It is possible to swim in the Spree without having to be filtered. “This is possible with a water quality monitoring system that signals to users when you can risk going swimming.”
“So we don’t have to build – apart from bathing conductors – but create the legal framework for being allowed to start swimming,” said Edler.
Baden sees environmental administration critically in the Spree
«The environmental administration can change the bathing water regulation. This would allow not only to swim in the Spree Canal in times of sufficient water quality, but also in perspective in other places in the inner -city Spree, »said Edler.
The Senate Department for Transport and the Environment is rather skeptical: Spree Canal and Spree are federal shipping streets for shipping. For the entire Spree Canal, monument protection rules must also be observed.
The Spree Canal is spanned by ten bridges and, according to the bathing water ordinance, bathing is generally 100 meters above and underneath bridges for safety reasons. Changes at this point are not provided for in the regulation, a spokesman for the environmental administration said.
Open questions about water quality
As far as water quality is concerned, it indicates possible problems. The city speech is contaminated in particular after heavy rain events by the mixed sewer system by a variety of different faecal germs.
Scientific studies on this still ran. “The evaluation and evaluation of these results are still pending,” said the environmental administration. “Whether and to what extent the Spree Canal is suitable for bathing based on these results from a hygienic point of view is still unclear and completely open.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 250416-930-443238/1
