Usedom: Addendum

In my previous post about the nudist war on the German-Polish border I mainly quoted news articles. They do indeed make an impression that the open-minded Germans contrast with the Poles in their readiness to accept nudity. Of course, not all Germans are open-minded (but I think many of them are :-)). While, concerning the Poles, it is true that the Catholic Church has a strong presence in Polish society. It has roots in the history. In 1795, the third and the last of three military partitions of Poland ended the existence of an independent Polish state. In the absence of their own state, the Polish society begun identifying Polishness with Catholicism. In 1918 the Polish state was reconstructed, but after the Second World War Poland was under the control of pro-Soviet Communists and the situation repeated (see, e.g., Catholicism and politics in communist societies by Sabrina P. Ramet).

It had far-reaching consequences. Catholicism does not accept nudity. In 2002 the results of the investigations of Sopocka Pracownia Badań Społecznych (Sopot Laboratory for Social Research) were published. It appeared that

57% of all Polish spouses never saw their husband or wife naked.
92% of Poles claim that, going naked in their homes, even for a moment, is strictly prohibited.
97% of Polish sons did not see their fathers naked.
95% of Polish daughters never saw their mothers naked and so on.

It raised questions like, “Are we a nation of people who are ashamed of their bodies?” But I would not overestimate the results of the surveys like that. The transition of Poland from closed society to an open society allows for a distinction between natural and man-made law, and an increase in personal responsibility and accountability for moral choices.

Concerning German-Polish nude bathing war the German site, The Local, quotes Robert Karelus, spokesman for the city of Świnoujście, who said that

Poles weren’t as squeamish about nude bathing as had been portrayed in the media.
Swimming in the buff was getting more popular in Poland and several nudist beaches had sprung up off the coast of Poland too in recent years.
The new signs on Usedom will not prompt Polish beach-goers to turn back.
We aren’t so prudish at all.

Ala, originally uploaded by jędrek.

Border conflict about nudism

On the 21st of December 2007 Poland entered into the Schengen agreement and soon afterwards the Usedom beach on the German-Polish border between the German and Polish towns of Ahlbeck and Świnoujście (Swinemünde), became the scene of … the ‘Nudist war‘. At least the German tabloid Bild depicted the local conflict as ‘Nudist war on the German-Polish border‘. If you are interested in news about naturism or paying attention to anything weird you presumably didn’t miss this story. I think, any book or series of posts about German naturism would not be complete without it :-). So I’ll state it here in brief.

A map of the islands of Usedom and Wolin and environs, Germany/Poland.

The Baltic Sea island of Usedom is divided by the border between Germany and Poland into the German and Polish parts. Usedom has six nudist beaches along its 40-kilometer stretch of coastline – one of which is just a few meters from the border. The beaches have been nudist beaches for almost fifty years, at least on the German side (The German part of the island belonged to East Germany between 1949 and 1990).

The oldest publications that I’ve found are dated August 2008, the newest are from April and May, 2009. At the end of 2007 and at the beginning of 2008 everything looked perfect. The online magazine Cafebabel.com cited Janusz Zmurkiewicz, president of Świnoujście, who said in December 2007: ‘Finally we will be able to cross over without showing our passports wearing only our swimming costumes in summer’. But, as Monika Stefanek, the author of the article in Cafebabel.com, noted, there was one thing he couldn’t have foreseen: not everyone on the German side of the beach covers themselves up. The problem came to light with the first summer temperatures.

Achtung Grenze: Die Polen auf Usedom sind entsetzt, wie nackt es auf der anderen Seite zugeht.

When the border signs on Usedom island were removed, Polish holidaymakers moved their feet to yet unknown beach across the border and many of them were outraged by the nudists. “I do not want my four year old daughter to know the anatomy” said a 47-year-old Polish woman. Kazimierz Sajadeusz, the 68-year-old priest in Świnoujście,  stressed: “From a Catholic point of view the nudists are sinners.” Edward Zajac, a councillor for Świnoujście, a self-proclaimed ‘moral guardian’, wanted to relocate the nudist beach far from the Polish border. If this is not possible, the nudist area should be shielded from view.

The Germans replied that what people forget today is that Goethe bathed naked, Bismarck bathed naked, and the royal spa-doctor Richard Kind from Swinemünde on Usedom warned in 1828 against bathing in swimsuits, because they neutralize the beneficial effect of the pounding of the waves. … The bathing war is as old as bathing itself.

Ein Paradies für Nudisten: Auf der Insel Usedom hat die Freikörperkultur (FKK) schon zu DDR-Zeiten die Touristen angezogen.

France24 concludes: ‘Passport controls between Poland and Germany may have vanished. But the border dividing sunbathers in swimming suits and those wearing nothing at all is as rigid as ever.’

Auf deutscher Seite sieht das am Strand oft so aus.

A few months ago a nudist compromise between Germany and Poland or a ceasefire was set to end the nudist war on Usedom beach. A peace plan provides that signs written in both German and Polish should mark off the naked-friendly territory from the clothes-only section. Additional signs will be prominently placed to remind German sunbathers that the Poles want to keep their beach free of bare bum sightings (quoted from Bild.com).

The locals of the island don’t like the interest that they have provoked by this conflict. They believe that the international press seems to be much more interested in this affair than the local one. And that there are a lot of real important things which are worth to be published. The mentioned international mass media consider it as a conflict of values between open-minded Germans and strict Catholics in Poland. But I would not oversimplify the issue.