Many German swimming pools are dilapidated and many have to be closed. The Bäderallianz is therefore launching the nationwide poster campaign: “Let’s save the bathrooms!” – also to put politicians under pressure.
The facts about the past Pentecost weekend: Almost 30 degrees, full outdoor pools, full lakes. But also: six bathing deaths, including four children. And a campaign at the right time: Twelve emotional motifs, posters in 90 German cities. A campaign by the Bäderallianz – a network of 16 leading associations from sports, health, rescue and pool operations with a total of around one million members.
“It’s about increasing the pressure on politicians”
“Let’s save the bathrooms!“The aim is to point out the added value of the pools as meeting places and places where swimming is learned and lifesavers are trained.”But it is also about significantly increasing the pressure on politicians“, says Christian Kuhn, chairman of the pool alliance.
In an interview with Sportschau, he compares the campaign, made possible with the help of sponsors, to the farmers’ protests a few years ago, when manure was dumped in front of the parliaments. No representative of the people should drive past the posters without a guilty conscience: “The location of our bathrooms is disastrous. More urgently needs to happen to preserve them.”
Christian Kuhn, chairman of the pool alliance
There are currently around 9,400 pools in Germany, from open swimming pools to indoor pools, teaching pools or pools in hospitals, retirement homes and fitness studios. But every second bathroom is currently dilapidated. Some of them have been in operation for over 60 years and have mostly only been renovated in a makeshift manner, the renovation backlog is increasingly leading to closures – and fewer and fewer water areas.
The DLRG pointed out in a campaign in 2018 that, statistically speaking, a swimming pool in Germany closes every four days – and never opens again. In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, almost half of the 1,400 indoor, outdoor and combination pools disappeared from the map within 25 years.
Need for renovation between ten and 20 billion euros
The pool alliance suspects that the need for renovation is somewhere between ten and 20 billion. And that is well beyond the 4.5 billion euros that were mentioned in 2018 as part of the 31 billion that the German Olympic Sports Confederation calculated at the time for the renovation backlog at sports facilities. The DOSB also now admits to Sportschau that this number is no longer realistic. “Since then, construction costs have gone through the roof“, says Michaela Röhrbein, DOSB Director of Sports Development.
The first municipal sports facility renovation program (SKS) set up by the federal government with a volume of 333 million euros was oversubscribed 21 times. Only six percent of the total was left for bathrooms. Christian Kuhn calls this symbolic politics. And the funding program for swimming pools alone (250 million euros) listed in the federal government’s 2026 economic plan is also “just a drop into the empty basin.”
The pool alliance is therefore demanding one billion euros in funding from the federal government for the pools – per year for the next twelve years. Plus more initiative from the states. “Until now, I had the impression that the politicians were only interested in cutting a few red ribbons in a public way when something was newly built or renovated“, says Kuhn: “Politicians are called upon to put together further packages. Our pools have great added value for the population and this requires a show of strength at all levels: federal, state and local.”
Municipalities can no longer afford pools
6,500 pools are publicly owned. But many municipalities simply can no longer afford their indoor swimming pools. For example in Neuenburg in southern Baden. The local indoor swimming pool there, which is over 50 years old, urgently needs to be renovated. But there isn’t enough money for that. The closure plans were recently discussed in the local council. “Of course, this caused a big outcry, which I can completely understand because the bathroom is a very important facility“, says Mayor Jens Fondy-Langela.
6,000 people have signed a petition to save the pool. Because if this indoor pool closes, swimming lessons will also become torture for the local schools: the nearest pools are 25 kilometers away, and ten schools from neighboring communities are already using the Neuchâtel pool. The city, says Fondy-Langela of Sportschau, is “not poor“In 2022, a major effort was made to renovate the outdoor swimming pool, but the decline in trade tax revenue is hitting the municipality hard.
Too many tasks, too little money. The annual deficit between income and expenditure in the city’s coffers amounts to around ten million euros. The indoor swimming pool is a large item with around 400,000 euros in uncovered operating costs annually. “We currently have to operate the indoor swimming pool on sight“, emphasizes the mayor. He is desperately looking for funding, including voluntary solutions for the future operation of the pool.
In many places, swimming clubs are now stepping in before pools are closed – will that work here too? In general, the prospects for the indoor swimming pool beyond the coming winter swimming season, which is still certain, are not good, says Fondy-Langela. That is why there is a risk of closure as early as 2027. Especially since one of the three city sports halls from the 1960s also urgently needs to be renovated. You just can’t do everything.
Neuchâtel had applied for funding as part of the municipal sports facilities renovation program – without success. Now they want to seek a financial injection from the 250 million program for pools, even though the funding limit there is eight million. However, that wouldn’t be enough.
There is a lack of staff
Sometimes pools close or are only open to a limited extent because there are no longer any staff. Around 3,000 specialist employees for pool companies have been lost, says Christian Kuhn from the pool alliance. The President of the Federal Association of Swimming Masters, Peter Harzheim, tells the Sportschau that things have only improved in terms of pay. Due to the staff shortage, many swimming champions are able to play poker higher, which is why the starting salary has risen to around 3,200 euros in recent years. But the job is still not attractive enough.
Reasons, in addition to the working hours and low reputation among the population: Working in broken bathrooms doesn’t bring much joy, says Harzheim: “We have a slight upward trend in training – but more and more are also stopping.” More and more pool operators are responding to this: with seasonal staff, volunteers and volunteers, the establishment of support associations – but also: limited visiting hours and restrictions: only children who can show at least the bronze badge are allowed into the pool.
Fewer and fewer children are learning to swim
Children should have this badge for swimming ability by the end of fourth grade – actually. But the reality is: According to the DLRG, around 60 percent of all children under the age of ten are not safe swimmers and are in acute danger of their lives in the water.
Fewer and fewer children are learning to swim at school. There is a lack of water time – also because of the dilapidated pools. Many private or club-organized courses are often quickly overbooked. Germany is becoming a country of non-swimmers. “Children who have to learn to swim are sometimes on a waiting list for three years. This shows the drama“, says DOSB director Michaela Röhrbein.
Everything is connected, emphasizes Ute Vogt. “We have so far made little progress in the necessary modernization of our swimming pool landscape and its consistent alignment with actual needs“, complains the DLRG President. In one On-lineThe DLRG collected 130,000 signatures on the petition eight years ago in order to get politicians to take action. But the required “planned and joint action by the federal, state and local authorities” is no longer in sight.
