Nudes battle prudes on east German Baltic beaches

WARNEMUENDE, Germany (Reuters) - Susanne Koch was wearing nothing but a friendly smile as she defended the merits of nude sunbathing on eastern German beaches.


"I grew up being naked at the beach and it's the only way to spend the summer here," said Koch, 31. "Being nude on the beach feels completely normal. Sticky, sweaty bathing suits are revolting. It's unfortunate we're being squeezed off."


Nowhere has the tradition of nude sunbathing, or the Free Body Culture (FKK) as it's known in Germany, been more prevalent than on its Baltic Sea beaches. In the heyday before the Berlin Wall fell, East German beaches were dominated by nude bathers.


But in the 15 years since, the naked sunbathers have been pushed off the main beaches in resorts like Warnemuende to the fringes as local hotels and businesses have taken action to mollify western Germans who complain about too much nudity.


"Western tourists are ruining the atmosphere," said Koch, a blonde woman with a seamless tan who works at a watch making firm. "The tensions are unfortunate. They don't know what they're missing. It's a shame westerners are so intolerant."


Warnemuende, a resort of 7,000 heavily dependent on tourism, has become a battleground pitting locals raised in communist East Germany eager to keep their au naturel traditions alive against western German tourists demanding a modicum of modesty.


To appease conservative western sensibilities, tourism officials have marked beaches where nude bathing is forbidden. Yet the signs in the lovingly restored resort town 150 miles north of Berlin are frequently ignored.


TENSIONS BETWEEN PRUDES AND NUDES


Even on carefree hot summer days the tension between those on the "textile" sections of the Warnemuende shore and the "FKK" sections is palpable. Local newspapers have said some angry westerners have gone so far as to hurl sand at nudists to chase them from the "fabric" sections.


"I can't understand why the 'Wessies' get so worked up about nudists being on the beach," said Maron Mock, 25, a stark naked local primary school teacher, using the derogatory term for west Germans. "What's the big deal?"


Mock said she's spent every summer of her life nude on the beach but worries nudists are becoming an endangered species.


"In the communist era, about 90 percent of the people here were nude," said Mock. "Now, only about 30 percent are. It's not fair. We're being pushed off our own beach into a crummy little zone on the edge. Being nude is not a crime."


Local tourism officials have put up signs delineating the shrinking nudist zones from the expanding fabric areas and in some Baltic resorts, including Warnemuende and Kuehlungsborn, beach wardens have even been installed to patrol the shore to make sure naked sunbathers stay in their marked zones.


"It's a definite improvement now that the nudists are being kept off the main beach," said retired office clerk Sina Hahn. "Aesthetically, it's not appealing. It's scandalous the way these naked people would just waltz around here everywhere."


Dirk Richter, 40, from the western city of Hanover, said he was surprised there still was so much uninhibited nudity in Warnemuende.


"I really don't want to see naked bodies all around me," said Richter, a tool-maker, pointing to nearby groups of nudists playing volleyball, paddleball, soccer, and other games. "It's not for everyone and it's often not a very attractive sight. It's tough luck for the natives if that's the way it used to be. Times change."


BATHING SUITS UNCOMFORTABLE


There are intriguing theories about why easterners developed such a fondness for nude sunbathing during the four decades of communist rule while the westerners stayed buttoned up.


Easterners, raised in the atheist communist state, say the influence of the Catholic and Protestant churches are responsible for the comparatively prudish western attitudes. Westerners respond saying the shoddy workmanship of East German bathing suits made easterners prefer being naked.


Some easterners admit that lying on the beach naked -- in the middle of the communist state that controlled so much of their lives -- represented a cherished, if limited, piece of freedom.


"Being naked on the beach in East Germany meant being free," said Wolfgang Schumacher, 57, a teacher wearing just a beard. "I've been naked my whole life. It's a shame they keep trying to reduce the size of the FKK area."


Schumacher said the only time he wears a swim suit is when he's abroad. He spent his annual holiday in Portugal.


"And now I've got this white stripe around my midriff as a result," he said. "Fabric swim suits are so terribly uncomfortable. How can anyone want to wear them?"