Berlin welcomes topless female swimmers in victory for activists

Gender equality campaigners celebrate rule change, which affects indoor and outdoor pools

When a lifeguard asked police to remove Lotte Mies for bathing topless at her local indoor swimming pool in Berlin it was a move that would inadvertently trigger a rule change allowing all women, including visiting female tourists, the freedom to go topless while swimming in the city.

The decision to change clothing rules around swimming in the German capital was made after two women, including Mies, filed complaints about being thrown out or barred from the city’s pools for refusing to cover up, and demanded the same rights as their male counterparts when bathing “oben-ohne” (topless) at the city’s public pools.