As temperatures across Europe have soared over the summer, many living in some of Europe’s larger cities attempt to beat the heat by attending outdoor pools—and the German capital of Berlin is no exception.
However, after a number of recent incidents of large-scale violence, many in the German capital are calling for more to be done to prevent violence from youths, described by Christian Democratic Union (CDU) general secretary Carsten Linnemann as often being from migrant backgrounds, Deutsche Welle reports.
“Anyone who attacks people in an open-air swimming pool at lunchtime must sit before a judge in the evening and be sentenced. Even on the weekend,” Linneman said and added, “Families who cannot afford a vacation or a pool in their own backyard have to watch young men, often with a migration background, become violent in the open-air swimming pool.”
Last year, German police union head Rainer Wendt made similar comments following another brawl at a Berlin pool saying, “Politicians shy away from the debate about the perpetrator clientele, which we obviously see here. They are young men, not all of them, but most of them with an immigrant background, who obviously claim this public space for themselves.”
In an effort to counter the rise in violence, the Berlin Senate has proposed checking the identification of those who wish to use the outdoor swimming pools.
Berlin’s Senator of the Interior Iris Spranger, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD), and Governing Mayor Kai Wegner of the CDU announced the proposal last week and said that pools had to enforce bans on those who cause trouble, noting repeat offenders “terrorize the outdoor pools.”
Interior Senator Spranger also promised the pools more resources for security, stating that the money was already there to hire additional security personnel, suggesting police may also play a role at public pools to ensure safety and security.
The police union, however, rejected the notion that police should provide constant security at pools, saying that officers are not lifeguards and have other more pressing things to do.
The new security proposals come after several violent incidents at swimming pools across Berlin within the last month. In late June, the Columbiabad pool in Neukölln was rocked by violent clashes caused after a 21-year-old woman and her friends were splashed by children wielding water pistols.
The incident escalated after the woman spat on the child and the child subsequently hit the woman in the face with the toy pistol, breaking her nose.
When police arrived on the scene they found the pool had escalated into a full-blown riot and a mob of around 250 bathers harassed them and security personnel at the pool. After police reinforcements arrived the pool was closed and all bathers were made to leave.
The incident was not an isolated one, as employees of the Columbiabad penned a letter in mid-June describing the atmosphere at the pool as “intolerable” and claimed that employees, women, minorities, particularly LGBT people, were often threatened with violence by youths, with verbal attacks, spitting, and bullying being commonplace.
According to Berlin police statistics, there were a total of 57 violent crimes reported at swimming pools in the city last year, but in 2018 the figure was 77.
The Columbiabad was the scene of another violent confrontation on Sunday, July 9th, that saw a group of youths break out into a brawl with staff. The pool was closed for an entire week after many of the staff members called in sick, with the pool reopening on Monday, July 17th.
The Prinzenbad in Berlin-Kreuzberg was the scene of a violent incident on the evening of July 16th, with one man injured after he had been struck in the head and upper body while trying to separate others who were fighting.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz later spoke out about the violent incidents saying he supported the use of police at swimming pools and that the state would not tolerate the violence.
