NUΔI

Freikorperkultur1 (FKK) is a movement in Germany which translates to Free Body Culture. This movement started predominately all of the naturist movements that have transpired. It promotes and strives for a naturist lifestyle when it comes to sports as well as living in communities. It brings a feeling of closeness to the world around you, without being connected to anything sexually. Followers of this movement are referred to as FKK’ler, nudist, or traditional naturist. An example of Freikorperkultur is being naked in a sauna, it does not take on a sexual meaning, it is just simply how the sauna was made to be used. This movement was the first of its kind globally, it also lead to an increase in the acceptance of naturist ideas in Germany. Thanks to the movement there are only a limited number of public laws on nudity in Germany.

                 

In many parts of Central and Western Europe until around the 18th century people would bath nude in areas such as lakes and streams with people of the same sex. As the 18th century came to a close so did public nudity. There were exceptions to this in Scandinavia and with Lord Monboddo, a Scottish judge and founder of modern comparative historical linguistics, who claimed that nude bathing showed a revival in the Ancient Greek attitudes towards nudism. The first Freikorperkultur club was founded in 1898 in the city of Essen, in Germany. The three major naturist clubs that are in Essen now are Club Penelope, Sauna club Acapulco, and Sauna club Arabella.

 

More and more clubs started to come about in Germany and finally in 1902 a phrase was coined up by Heinrich Pudor to refer to the network that connected all these clubs. The word that was made is “Nacktkultur”. Pudor also made a three-volume treatise on the subjects of naturism, vegetarianism, and social reform. His treatise focused on how those three subjects were all connected.

 

The 1920’s were an amazing time for the movement. In 1926, Adolf Koch established a school dedicated to nudism. At this school there was a mixing of the sexes as well as open air exercise to promote “sexual hygiene” among the adolescents. In 1929, the first International Congress on Nudism was held at the school.

 

As the Nazi Party sprang up members of the nudist movement started to join the party as well as sports teams to get protection from the party. This ended up back firing because there was a law passed that banned nudism unless you belonged to that sports team or the party in fear that there would be an increase in homosexuality and Marxists. The ban only lasted a month then within one-year naturism had gained support country wide. There were a few changes though as it gained popularity back, the clubs had to exclude any and all Jews and Communists. The clubs also had to move to the far desolate countryside to avoid being seen by anyone. Since they were now a “Sports Federation” they enjoyed many benefits such as tax exemption.

 

When Adolf Hitler claimed power in Germany the nudist community took a hit. He banned all public nudity including bath houses, because he felt it corrupted the people. After his fall and the war was over the naturist community came back and spread their ideas to the west with the first recorded naturist wedding being in Elysian Fields, California in 1942. Other movements started to spring up in Germany as well such as “Nacktwanderung” which translates to naked roaming. This movement is where a group of people will hike the countryside completely nude, which is all possible thanks to German laws on non-sexual public nudity.

 

1. Information obtained from https://freewilluk.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/freikorperkultur/