I found a tranche of photos online purporting to be examples of East German naturism (i.e. the DDR).

I can’t vouchsafe for their authenticity, although one or two definitely are -the book and magazine covers in the first two photos.

Another has a ‘DDR’ plate on a car. The car’s from East Germany, then, but it doesn’t necessarily place the model in the country, or underline her place of birth.

When Germany was divided in two after the war and the east fell under communist rule, it was run with an iron fist in many respects, its citizens under surveillance. The Stasi, the East German secret police, spied on its citizens, and one had to be very, very careful who one spoke to about what. So paranoid was the state that the security services analysed garbage. Yes…having your bin (i.e.. garbage can) searched for evidence of ‘western food packaging’ was part of their remit.

The Stasi employed a quarter of a million people, and had a further 175000 informants.

Little wonder, then, that naturism was so popular. It was a freedom that could not be controlled, and it’s hard to hide a tape recorder in your birthday suit! So at the naturist beach, people felt free. Free of state involvement, free to speak.

An excellent history of East German naturism can be found via this link.

I also found a short interview via ‘Vice’ magazine. Some of this is pure, typical ignorance on the part of the interviewer, immediately linking nudity with sex. I’d have redacted that part of the interview, but felt the line of questioning was dumb enough to be worthy of inclusion to demonstrate the levels of ignorance we naturists still encounter, so I’ve left it in. Apologies for the bit about people ‘jerking off’ which isn’t really part of a naturist lifestyle, most of the time. But it’s an activity that occasionally does rear it’s ugly…um…head at the periphery of naturism – watch out for a subsequent blog posting on that.

VICE: At what age did you get naked in public for the first time?

Florence: One or two I think. We were on holidays at Usedom on the Eastern Coast.

Could you get naked everywhere in the GDR or just at certain places?  Well, if you’d walk down the street naked people would have thought you’re completely nuts.

But it was socially accepted? More than accepted.

We in the Western part call this behavior exhibitionism and you’d get fined. Because you’re Puritans with little dicks.

Right. So dicks and c**ts meet at the same place? And there was nothing sexual involved? I mean come on… It’s about as sexual as going to the sauna. You don’t go to the sauna and think, Wow, that’s the dick of this old dude my aunt’s been dating ten for years. You’re just like, Ugh, old wrinkly dick, and don’t think about it anymore.

Well, but the old guy probably thinks something else. Ever seen someone jerking off there? Maybe some people did, but if anyone noticed they would have chased you away. It would have been as weird as jerking off in your classroom.

Why is it still so popular in East Germany? Because East Germans are more relaxed, I presume the East Germans have also got the wilder sex life. There are statistics about that and I heard stories that in East Germany there was no good TV program, which resulted in two things drastically going up: a) sex and b) alcoholism, so we could add c) nudism but I have no proof for that thesis.

So you were locked in behind the Iron Curtain because you were sex crazy animals?The other way around: You were excluded because you were uptight capitalists.

Ever had sex with a West German? Yes. And with lots of East Germans as well.

Who’s better? East Germans care less about protection, while, like, every West German gets a condom on as soon as you’re in the midst of the kissing part. East Germans forget about that more often if you don’t remind them. Who’s actually better? Hmm. East Germans. But West Germans tend to pay for the cab.

What was the craziest thing you did in your East German sex life? No one ever penetrated me with a Stalin statue on a beach, if you mean something like that.

Forget about that. Last question. Quickie on the staff toilet? Yeah right. That’s about as funny as these freakin’ bananas you bought us on Monday. Like, woohoo—Eastern Kids, here’s some cool fruit for you, they’re called Bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. That joke is so old it’s not even moldy anymore.

You know what? That reaction is exactly why it is so f**king funny, but you’ll never going to get that, will you? Nothing beats the banana joke!

As recently as last August a German politician was promoting the idea of expanded naturism in (the now reunited) Germany, speaking at length about it in the German edition of Playboy in August 2017.

 

You can read some of what the politician said via this link too. 

It’s a story we covered back in August 2017, so check our archives for more.

There are numerous German speaking sims in SL, and it’s no surprise to find a search for ‘FKK’ (an acronym for freikoerperkultur -free body culture, I,e, naturism) produces some results.

Model Malgorzata certainly found time to pose at ‘FKK’ locations such as Oblivion Bay and Bumrose

 

Ella