Naked, free, vegetarian:visions of a radically different life

Away from the demands of the big city and the pressure to perform of capitalism:In the 1920s, nudist facilities were built in Mecklenburg, Holstein and the Lüneburg Heath. Some settler families live in the "Jungmöhl" all year round.

by Heiko Kreft

Noise, dirt, crowds:Germany's big cities after 1900 are anything but heavenly. The "life reform" wants to change that. The social reform movement sees itself as a counter-movement to industrialization and wants "back to nature!". A vegetarian diet, physical exercise and sunbathing should do the trick. The "life reform" basic rules also include renouncing alcohol and nicotine. Another very popular aspect:naturism. FKK experienced its first peak in the Weimar Republic. Clubs are being set up everywhere because public skinny dipping is forbidden.

"We are naked and say you!"

Politically, the clubs are extremely diverse. Berlin's Adolf Koch and his followers are close to the Social Democrats. Motto:"We are naked and say you!". There are also bourgeois and ethnic German nudist clubs. "Whereas the Völkische want a return to 'German nature', to the so-called Germanic - who didn't exist - the bourgeois want to go back to 'biblical nature'. Adam and Eve is the keyword," reports Bernd Wedemeyer-Kolwe. He heads the Lower Saxony Institute for Sports History in Hanover and is a proven expert on German naturist history.

"Jungmöhl" at Plauer See becomes a nudist paradise

Living radically differently:At the Plauer See in Mecklenburg this is tried out from 1929 - in the privately operated nudist facility "Jungmöhl" of the "life reformer" Johannes Müller. He would like to realize his lifelong dream in Mecklenburg. It's his second attempt. The first in Bavaria fails due to jealous neighbors, overzealous police officers and charges of causing a public nuisance. Müller's crime:a bare bottom at the grain harvest. The son of a Baptist preacher therefore dares to make a new start in Mecklenburg. "Sometimes I've thought about whether the path my father took might have been a part of rebelliousness against the parental home," asks daughter Renate Eichner. Today she is 89 years old and can remember the time in the "Jungmöhl" well.

Spartan life without meat and coffee

Johannes Müller promises the "Jungmöhl" guests "holidays from the self". In the morning he calls her to gymnastics on the lake shore with the gong. "I'll be there, my father in front with a tambourine," said Eichner. "And then we did morning exercise and went into the water. Afterwards we had to wait and see how we got dry." Drying off with a towel is frowned upon. Müller's method:dry terry. "These were certain exercises that were repeated over and over again until the whole body was more or less dry."

The "Jungmöhl" accommodations are spartan. All "light air huts" are made of reeds and have neither windows nor doors. Eating is also easy. No meat, no alcohol, no coffee. Fruit and vegetables come from our own garden. Tours with the steamer "Loreley" are great fun. The charter boat ships the naked people through the Mecklenburg Lake District. That causes a lot of attention. In order to attract even more guests, Müller places advertisements in naturist magazines.

World's largest nudist publisher in Egestorf, Lower Saxony

These magazines are mainly produced by the Egestorf-based Robert Laurer Verlag. He has resided in the village on the edge of the Lüneburg Heath since 1924 and quickly blossomed into what was then the world's largest publishing house of its kind. The boss is the German-Bohemian Robert Laurer. He publishes countless books and magazines, for example the biweekly "Licht-Land" and the monthly illustrated "Laughing Life". Around 42,000 copies per issue of "Laughing Life" alone are sold throughout Germany.

"But they didn't exist in Egestorf itself," says Egestorf community archivist Marlies Schwanitz. "Robert Laurer employed 20 people at times. When the magazines were finished printing, they had to be taken to the train station. That was a huge amount. The post office even worked on Sundays, and an extra wagon had to be attached to the train at times to handle the many to transport packages."

Laurer's theme worlds:religion, sex and politics

Back then, Laurer's magazines offered a dazzling mix of topics. In addition to reflections such as "Naturism and Religion", there are reports from all over the world, news from nudist clubs and sex education. The magazines breathed the free zeitgeist of the Weimar Republic, says folklorist Wedemeyer-Kolwe. "If you look at these magazines, how the advertising is presented, how they advertise with photos, with canoes, with Nivea skin oil - that's incredibly modern." But both magazines are also about politics:"We have ethnic sections, we have Adolf Koch with proletarian physical culture. There are very colorful and very broad discussions. And that's quite liberal," explains Wedemeyer-Kolwe.

Moral watchdogs turn up their noses - and prohibit spending

Self-appointed guardians of morals tend not to like the Egestorfer magazines. Again and again individual numbers are confiscated. Ads and bans rained down. In 1926, Laurer's publishing house was on the brink of collapse:Eight editions of "Laughing Life" were to be banned and destroyed. "This ad was probably very massive," reports Marlies Schwanitz. "There was a trial in Lüneburg. Laurer and his editor-in-chief Walter Brauns were charged." The accusation:joint publication of indecent writings. In fact, Laurer and Brauns are sentenced - to 1,000 marks each or 50 days in prison.

Nudity Crime Trial

Laurer and Brauns object because they want a landmark ruling. Are all nude pics lewd? Or aren't they? The case moves from the Lüneburg District Court to the Lüneburg Regional Court. Hundreds of images are inspected there. The main curator of the National Museum is even summoned from Munich. As an expert he should judge:Is that art? Or does that have to go? Outrageous dialogues unfold in court about lengths of pubic hair and shadows on female breasts. Laurer later publishes the court record as a book. Title:"Nudity as a Crime". At the end of the Lüneburg trial, Laurer and Brauns were largely acquitted.

"Lichtschulheim":Glüsinger nudist boarding school causes a stir

Another unusual chapter in naturist history takes place very close to Egestorf. In 1927, the reform pedagogue Walter Fränzel wanted to found a "light school home" in Glüsingen. For this he needs the blessing of the school authorities. On site, he presents his plan to the officials. "My grandfather immediately told us what he was up to:naked lessons, upbringing without coercion and free thinking," reports Harald Fränzel. "My grandmother stepped on his foot. He shouldn't talk so much about being naked."

But in the liberal Weimar Republic, such a special school is apparently not a problem. It all started on May 1, 1927:one class, six children. All offspring of nudists. Together they run through meadows, fields and forests in the morning, of course naked - at any time of the year and in any weather. "That caused quite a stir. The conservative farmers just declared him crazy. And that was the end of it," says Fränzel.

Worldwide interest in the North German naturist movement

It's not just the locals who find the Glüsinger "Lichtschulheim" unorthodox. Journalists from all over the world come to the small village and report about the school and its founder. In 1930 the Chinese Timothy Wang stopped by. "He made a tour of Europe and was here for several days," says Harald Fränzel. "It must have been in November, it was pretty cold. He admired the children doing sports barefoot in the cold temperature." The year after his visit to Glüsingen, Wang publishes the book "New Paths in Europe" in Shanghai. In it he also describes in detail the Klingberg open-air park near Scharbeutz, a large nudist facility on Lake Pönitz.

Klingberg in Holstein becomes a hotspot for nudists from America

The American journalist couple Frances and Mason Merrill also visit this park. "They were there for several weeks and then wrote a book. It came out in 1931 and triggered a boom in American and English-speaking guests," says Gertrud Kummer. She researched the history of Klingberg. In fact, the Klingberg guest books contain page-long entries from the English, Americans and South Americans. The open-air park, founded by Paul Zimmermann, is developing into an international hotspot for the nudist scene. Nowhere is nudist life more sophisticated than there. "As soon as they came, they were allowed to drop all their covers and just go swimming and walking. It was a stress-free holiday."

Back then, people in the USA were much more prudish. The Merills rave about Klingberg in their book. "When this book was published in America, the pages with the nude photos were still being cut out in the libraries. After 1931! You have to imagine," says Kummer. "We were quite a bit ahead here in Klingberg."

National Socialists ban free nude culture in 1933

When the National Socialists came to power, a lot changed for the nudist movement as well. A large part of the Weimar freedoms are confiscated again, clubs are banned or brought into line. In the spring of 1933, Hermann Göring issued a ban on nude bathing in the Prussian territories. The nudist facility in Egestorf and the "Lichtschulheim" in Glüsingen will be closed. Klingberg also came under pressure:Paul Zimmermann was supposed to put his open-air park under the National Socialist "League for Body Breeding". But he refuses and feels the consequences. Members of the only permitted nudist association are prohibited from visiting Klingberg. In addition, more and more foreign guests are staying away.

Accusation of pro-Jewishness:the end of the "Jungmöhl"

The "Jungmöhl" at Plauer See in Mecklenburg has a certain period of grace. Unlike in Prussia, there is no general ban on nude bathing in Mecklenburg, even after the Nazis took power. But Johannes Müller is also under massive pressure to join the "Bund für Leibeszucht". He held out until the summer of 1935. "A guest was at the hairdresser's in Plau, came back in the evening and said:'They said at the hairdresser, tomorrow we'll close the 'Jungmöhl'," recalls Irmgard Buchholz, the 94-year-old daughter of the "Jungmöhl" founder . "I know that we were sent to the neighborhood. We shouldn't see it happen. Three cars pulled up and a lot of people got out. And the first accusation they made against us was that we were friendly to Jews."

In fact, the "Jungmöhl" is closed because of this. Müller goes to court and achieves a partial success. The "Jungmöhl" is allowed to open again - but on one condition:Müller must submit to the Nazi federation. At the latest with the beginning of the Second World War, free nudist life in the "Jungmöhl" ends. Johannes Müller is drafted into the Wehrmacht. In January 1945, all traces of him were lost on the Eastern Front. The wife and children can no longer operate the "Jungmöhl".