When the North Learned to Swim
“Swim?! – Any child can swim!” – Today, unfortunately, this is no longer the case. Water and swimming – two things which, considered historically, don’t necessarily go together. On July 18, 1912, 1000 people waited on the pier in the Baltic sea spa Binz on Rügen, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the tourist steamer, the “Kronprinz Wilhelm.” When the bridge collapsed under the weight of the sightseers, more than 100 people plunged into the water, 16 of whom – including two children – drowned. Most could not swim. Founded in Leipzig in October of 1913, more than a year later, was a new association, the “Deutsche Lebens-Rettungsgesellschaft,” the German Rescue Society,” or DLRG for short. At that time, only 2% of the population knew how to swim, and up to 5000 people drowned annually. This was the beginning of an enormous offensive: the German people must learn to swim! Northern Germany, with its seaside resorts, characterized the popular image of the German coastline: Norderney, Helgoland, Westerland on Sylt, Travemünde, Heiligendamm, Prora – with more than 1500 km of coastline, the north, with its beaches, is today Germany’s bathtub. The film tells the story of how Germany learned to swim. From the development of the coastal resorts, to the bathing culture found in both urban and rural settings, the invention of water wings, to bathing fun for all in chlorinated swimming pools.
