Kreuzberged on Berlin’s most popular open-air swimming pool…
Despite it being almost always abundantly full, rambunctiously loud and—let’s be honest—an occasional challenge to one’s nerves, it’s hard to imagine Berlin summers without its most popular man-made dipping spot.
Prinzenbad (Sommerbad Kreuzberg, its official name, is used by practically no-one) became the city’s Number One pool after reaching its seasonal quota of 300,000 visitors in 1992; a position it has occupied ever since despite the slight decrease of the number of visitors caused by poor weather and several ticket price hikes.
Its popularity is pretty easy to explain. It’s spacious, centrally located (right next to U-Bahn Prinzenstrasse on the popular U1 line, hence its nickname) and full of water: lots and lots of water. But more than any of those things, perhaps, Prinzenbad offers a unique slice of local atmosphere, hence it has been featured in not one but two films: the screen version of Sven Regener’s classic Herr Lehmann (aka “Berlin Blues”), and Bettina Blümner’s 2007 punchy documentary about three Kreuzberg girls, Prinzessinenbad: Pool of Princesses.
The baths are actually built on the site of a former English gasworks; the Imperial Continental Gas Association as it was officially know, a company that installed the very first gas lighting in Berlin during the 1820s, and which were destroyed by Allied bombing in 1945.
They were ordered to be built by Kreuzberg’s first post-war mayor, the unforgettably thick-browed Willy Kressmann (“Texas-Willy”). While building a brand new recreational pool might not seem like the most urgent priority in a war-ravaged city, Kressmann knew what he was doing.
Around 80% of all households had no acces…