The Re-birth of Venus: How Getting Naked at German Lakes Revived My Body Image
Figure 1 Botticelli, The Birth of Venus 1485/6
Alas, a giant clam shell was not available for my first naked dip in a German lake, nevertheless, that didn’t make me feel any less like Venus. Being naked in water isn’t anything revolutionary; bathing and showering is a fundamental part of life. Water passing over the body is almost always seen as a cleansing element and is found in Judaism and Christianity; it is symbolic of renewal, rebirth and revival. The naked body in water can also represent a form of deep intimacy with others, something Ilya Kaminski captures beautifully:
“Soaping together is sacred to us. Washing each other’s shoulders.
You can fuck anyone— but with whom can you sit in water?”
— Ilya Kaminsky, “While the Child Sleeps, Sonya Undresses”
Taking my kit off in front of many a German lake-goer, however, was a different beast entirely. My experience with naked bathing was neither religious nor as a way to connect to another, instead, it acted as a way to gain personal closeness with my self.
East Germany has a reputation for something called FKK (Freikörperkultur), literally meaning free body culture. At the end of the 19th century the Germans had the ingenious idea that the many lakes surrounding Berlin would be best enjoyed nude! As German naturism developed over the decades it became linked with the idea of ‘Gemeinsame Nacktheit’ or communal and shared nakedness. All throughout the contemporary Federal Republic of Germany, there are dedicated nude beaches for all to enjoy (I frequented the Kulkwitzer-See in West Leipzig). At this point it is important to emphasise that FKK is not about sex. Sadly, in our society, nakedness and nudity are automatically linked with sexuality, smut and often produce so much shame for so many people. My experience of FKK was simply about ‘being’. If I was going to get really metaphorical, FKK can be seen as a form of quasi-reclamation; being able to be naked, for the sake of being naked. No need to don an ivy leaf over your nether-regions, no need to feel shame about your body and no banishment from nature’s Eden; you can even eat an apple while you’re doing it! FKK attempts to remove the shame associated with nakedness and replace it with the idea that being naked can be normal, comfortable and something to be celebrated
Figure 2 Matisse Dance 1/2
Just add water
It is all well and good to badger on about the benefits of getting your bits out at bodies of water, but it’s also important to say that actually getting in, is more than half the battle. It would be way too easy to suggest that it was wholly my ‘britishness’ that made me initially apprehensive about baring all (although its true that, for the most part, we don’t do ‘that’ in the UK). I’m afraid, like many of us, it was body-image holding me back. It took a lot of oohing and aahing for me to take the risk, and the plunge, sans the swimsuit. One big step for me, one giant leap for my wobbly bits.
My experience with FKK was also a gradual one; I built up the confidence one body part at a time. This is something I’d suggest if you want to try it and test how you feel about the whole idea. In quite quick succession I went from sunbathing in my underwear all the way to giving fellow swimmers a complete eye full. My first full-body FKK experience was shared with a friend. Also from the UK and a fellow German studier, we thought we couldn’t call ourselves proper German students, living in East Germany no less, without getting at least one tit out at the lakeside. What may seem quite comical to the outsider; two UK students chucking our swimsuits in the air and kind of half running half walking down to a lake was, to the FKK-frequenter, something somewhat normal. This sense of normality was something I really appreciated and made me feel more at home in my body.
When I finally submerged myself in the lake (yes, it was chilly), there washed over me a new sense of refreshment and comfort. From a sensory point of view, crisp water washing over your skin on a hot summers day is dreamy; I felt like that Nirvana baby, but instead of money, I was swimming after self-love and contentment. The Kulkwitzer-See, in West Leipzig, also has amazing water quality which made the swimming all the more enjoyable. Just a heads up; don’t go FKK-ing in dirty or unsafe waters, or really anywhere that doesn’t specify that it’s a nude beach. It has to be remembered that not everyone wants to see other peoples’ bits and pieces on their seaside or lakeside walks. If you do find a place that you can take a nude-dip, then you’ll be surprised what a sensory experience it is!
The subheading of this article talks about my body-image being revived. I admit, my FKK experience did not completely wash away any body-image issues I have or will still have. Being in love and happy with your body is a fluctuating experience that constantly evolves. But FKK did make me think differently about my body in relation to it being naked in different contexts. My being nude at a German lakeside was nothing shameful, nothing forced, nothing sexual and nothing odd. Instead, it was something completely accepted and normal, and something being done by 80% of the people around me. It was a revival of what it meant for me to be naked in water. You could say my times naked swimming were a succession of ‘body-image-baptisms’; if we take the direct meaning of baptism as a renewal and change of view, with a side order of getting slightly damp. To answer Kaminsky’s question “with whom can you sit with in water?”, I would say, yourself!