Trouble in waves

It's never been that easy to go for a swim in the city. Any day when temperatures rise over 25°C, frantic queues form outside each of Berlin's 11 public outdoor pools.

- Cathrin Schaer

You'll stand sweating for at least half an hour, toe to toe with truculent teens in crop tops and hot toddlers with their overheating, overburdened parents, before you finally get to enter.

This summer, it got even harder to get a swim as Berlin was plagued by what local newspapers described as a "wave of violence" at municipal pools. Almost every other day, there was a headline about a water-adjacent rampage. Forget the war in Ukraine. Even Germany's Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, ended up commenting on Berlin's public pool scraps. They also made the international news. In one incident, about 50 teenagers took control of a giant slide and refused to leave.

In another, neo-Nazis gathered to protest against immigrants coming for a paddle. At several pools, lifeguards got into fist fights with punters. In an open letter published by Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, pool staff described their jobs as "psychological terror".