Well....it's a funny story.
Heat has been a major topic in Berlin (the city) for 2026....number of days of 30 C or more. At some point....some commercial business-front had this idea of a temp-pool design. You'd build up a above-pool situation....normal pool size....maybe 1.5 meters deep (5 ft). You'd rent-out the deal....have a team (probably 6 guys) to assemble it....fill it up with water....run it as a cooling-off 'thrill' for some neighborhood.
Cost factor? Never openly discussed. I would guess that it's around 60,000 Euro for a 6-week rental/assembly. Who pays the water bill? Unknown (I might guess that comes back to the city council).
To be re-used over and over? Yeah...that's the business-side plus-up.
So....this idea went forward and the cost was covered by a NGO (non-gov't organization). It's some group who was given the funds, and agreed-upon for site use. Maybe the NGO 'rented' the site as part of the deal....with the gov't getting funds 'back'.
The first Volksbad? Assembled and used without a bad word. Even ARD (public TV) did a segment and suggested it was a brilliant idea for summer use.
Then came a NGO in Berlin, who wanted a Volksbad concept....in a neighborhood....that has a fair black/African population, and the pool was to be set-up/used....ONLY for blacks (no German whites). The NGO has some connection back to the black population of Berlin.
This got a lot of negative coverage....mostly from social media (not ARD).
How many blacks exist in Berlin? It's not officially counted....but AI suggests the number of 53,000.
What makes them different from regular-white Germans of Berlin? Well....nothing much. If you asked about swimming capabilities of two groups....I'd probably guess that 95-percent of Germans can swim....with the black population closer to one-quarter of the 53k being able to swim. This idea of the separate pool....maybe giving the one social group a lesser embarrassment? I'm of the mind that this is how the idea got created and funded.
How the 95-percent of German society can swim? Around age 10 to 12...schools mandate swimming classes (it's awful hard to get out of this requirement). Newer residents/guests of Germany....never getting the mandated class in swimming? Yeah.....if you arrived at age 18 to 25...you probably never learned to swim in your youth.
A real scandal? No.
The minute that the council folks said it was a blacks-only event/use....it was to be a political mess to clean up.
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