Lotte Mies (33) from Hellersdorf wants free breasts for everyone – and was successful with her complaint to the State Office for Equal Treatment Photo: Christian Lohse
By Sara Orlos Fernandes
She fought for breasts in Berlin’s baths – now the trained lifeguard Lotte Mies (33) receives death threats.
The Hellersdorf native repeatedly receives insulting comments and messages via social media. “Some wish that I would be raped,” she now told the German Press Agency.
The reactions don’t leave the activist cold, but she doesn’t give up. “If comments go below the belt, I delete them,” she says to BZ. She wants to report the death threats.
Despite the hostilities, she wants to continue to campaign for women’s rights together with the group “Same Breasts for All”. In summer, joint topless visits to swimming pools, hikes and picnics are planned. “The female breast is not a nuisance,” says Lotte Mies.
The debate about topless bathing in Berlin started last December when Mies was thrown out of an indoor pool in Kaulsdorf – after doing laps there with bare breasts.
Although she had asked beforehand and apparently got the green light, her swimming visit ended with a police operation. After she lodged a complaint with the anti-discrimination agency, the Berlin bathing establishments made it clear: women are allowed to bathe topless.