Okay, so the other day I was down this rabbit hole, wondering about weird laws around the world. And I stumbled upon this question: “Was it illegal to swim in Germany?” It sounded so bizarre, I just had to dig in.
My Deep Dive into German Swimming History
First, I hit up Google, obviously. I typed in all sorts of things: “Germany swimming laws history,” “illegal swimming Germany,” you name it. I found a bunch of forum posts and random articles, but nothing super concrete.
So, I decided to get a little more academic. I started looking for historical documents, maybe old newspapers or legal texts, but that got tricky real fast. My German is… well, let’s just say it’s not great.
I spent a good few hours just sifting through search results, trying to piece together bits of information. It was like a puzzle, but half the pieces were missing, and the other half were in a language I barely understood!
I did learn some about river swimming and public bathing regulations in the past, It seems like, back in the day, there were definitely rules. But whether it was ever completely illegal to swim? The jury’s still out on that one, at least from my little investigation.
Finally,I give up to find the answer.
