Did you know that there is segregation in Freiburg? For example, the
Lorettobad
located in the
Wiehre neighborhood has
a separate pool for ladies only.
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Sommer, Sonne, Damenbad published by Lavori Verlag
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As far back as 1980, a student challenged this gender segregation in court,
possibly because he felt deprived of seeing girls in bikinis. He
eventually lost the court case. According to the Municipal Code, installations
may be dedicated and used as such. Furthermore, no gender is deprived of
swimming, for the
Lorettobad has other, bigger pools accessible to
everybody. Therefore, a
Damenbad does not infringe on the principle
of equality laid down in the
Grundgesetz (German constitution).
In addition to his lost case, the student was mistaken
about
Damenbad's clients. As the name says, the users are
ladies, while girls prefer the open area of the
Lorettobad, for they like
to be seen in their bikinis, particularly by students.
Today there was an exception. The
Badische Zeitung had arranged
a visit to the
Damenbad for their readers only from 6 (!) to 9
a.m. before the official opening. So Red Baron living nearby, walked to
the
Lorettobad and arrived at 6:02.
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I arrived at the Damenbad at dawn.
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Many ladies were present and greeted the male guests, but the promised coffee and
the croissants were still missing.
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First contacts under the moon at 6:06 a.m. (©BZ)
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Two other gentlemen were there and started to undress, but they were told to
change to the public part of the swimming pool. When they returned in their
swimming trunks, Red Baron was tempted to swim, too, despite a water
temperature of only 21 degrees centigrade.
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Red Baron hesitating
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The swimming pools are not heated. When 1990, the
Lorettobad was
refurbished the old basins made of concrete were replaced by pools made of
stainless steel. The advantage of the latter is better hygiene and a heating
effect. The sun is not only reflected on the metallic surfaces of the walls and
the ground, but the red and infrared part of the spectrum going back and forth is
partly absorbed by the water. This is why the pools look bluish.
So in our Green
City, only the sun is warming up the pools with their water continuously
circulating and passing through cleaning filters. Since stainless steel is a bad
heat conductor, the water keeps its temperature over extended periods.
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After the swim: Red Baron climbs out of the Damenbad (©BZ)
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Technical details about water circulation and cleaning.
Red Baron listens skeptically to the explanations of the pool supervisor
(©BZ)
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When I left at 7:30, the sun had taken over.
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For Freiburg, the
Lorettobad, particularly the
Damenbad, is a
cultural heritage. It is sponsored by the
Freunde des Lorettobades.
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Fundraising concert arranged by the Friends of the Lorettobad (©Freunde des Lorettobades)
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Hand laid fiberglass is much stronger and is built with full sheets of fiberglass cloth.Aufstellbecken
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