Berlin Theatre Faces Backlash Over Race-Restricted Pool Slot
The theatre says the pool is a form of positive action and an inclusive response to Berlin’s swimming shortage, while critics call it race-based discrimination.
- On Friday, a temporary swimming pool in front of Berlin's Volksbühne theatre will restrict access exclusively to "Black communities" for six hours, organized by the NGO Each One Teach One .
- Incoming artistic director Matthias Lilienthal erected the 25m Volksbad to address Berlin's lack of municipal swimming facilities, financing the €300,000 structure from the theatre's budget as an inclusive urban gesture.
- The Alternative for Germany criticized the policy as "open racial segregation" funded by taxpayers, though the General Equal Treatment Act allows for "positive action" to compensate for "existing disadvantages."
- Following public criticism, organizers softened the event description on Tuesday to note the facility is "reserved for EOTO e.V.," after previously describing the session as "entirely for us alone."
- The pool, which opened on August 7 and closes October 1, remains a temporary fixture while the controversy highlights ongoing debates about equitable access to public spaces in Berlin.
49 Articles
49 Articles
Berlin Volksbuhne swimming pool’s ‘Black people only’ event faces backlash, gets cancelled over security concerns amid racism and inclusion debate
Rest of World News: A temporary public swimming pool outside Berlin’s historic Volksbuhne theatre has cancelled a planned event that was due to be open exclusively to Bla.
Berlin’s €300,000 “Pool for Everyone” Reserves a Day for Black People Only
Berlin's taxpayer-funded €300,000 "Pool for Everyone" has caused outrage after reserving a session exclusively for black bathers – shutting everyone else out of a pool supposedly built to promote "inclusion".
Pool had been reserved exclusively for one afternoon by association representing black people in the capital. Initiative was the target of criticism and threats, with ultraright leader comparing event to "apartheid"
In Berlin, a free public pool opened a few days ago in front of the Volksbühne theatre was temporarily closed for the whole day against the backdrop of a rumour that only black people would be allowed to go there on that day — rumors that had arisen because of the poor language on the theater website. The far right and far left parties, in turn, used the scandal to draw attention to themselves on the eve of the election.
Berlin theatre scraps pool event for Black children citing ‘racist agitation’
The Volksbuehne theatre and the anti-racism organization Each One Teach One (EOTO) had intended the event, for Black “children, young people and their relatives”, as “a positive measure to support structurally disadvantaged groups”.
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